Halo 3 ODST 2 PART I
by AgentQV
Summary: It's months after the events of Halo 3 odst, and the Rookie is back along with his team and a new odst squad member includes Buck/Dare and Rookie/OC finally finished. Part 2 is in production, first ten chapters are being re-edited.
1. Chapter 1

Lance Corporal James Dante Nicknamed the Rookie sighed sitting on the medical cot, the UNSC physician was writing in quickly on a clipboard. The man seemed to be quite busy today, considering the short line of marines outside the office. James could see pictures around the office, pictures of old doctors who served on the Say-My-Name. HE sighed and then looked up at the balding man.

"Alright everything checks out Lance Corporal, you can leave." the Doctor said while looking over his clipboard and writing down medical info.

"What? No needles?" He asked.

_Damn why'd I say that?_

The man shook his head.

"As much as I'd like to indulge you, I have much more work to do… get going." He said. James slowly obliged and got off the cot, he walked through the door and saw another marine walk beside him, he had a grey T-shirt, while James's had a black one with the letters O D S T inscribed on it.

He walked through the hallway whistling slightly, He was just glad to be out of New-Mombasa, although that was a month ago and he had been ordered along with his team to remain on the UNSC frigate Say-My-Name. The frigate had seen quite a bit of combat considering it participated on harvest in the beginning of the war. He walked by a group of marines that were busy… well he wasn't really sure what they were doing; all he knew was it had to do with the elites, since they were near a Elite door. James sighed.

_Ever since this 'cease fire' started, we had to share a damn ship with the elites._

He looked at a nearby clock; it was roughly 1843 Military time, or just time to eat. The meals schedule for dinner was 1800 to 2100. He had gotten use to the ship, its layout was different than most UNSC vessels, but it was fine. And he was having a decent day. He worked out, he slept for a few hours, Then later private Crespo convinced him to invade on Eddy Buck and Veronica Dare's 'private time' of course he got a stern lecture afterwards about personal responsibility and such. It was worth it to see Dare diving towards the blanket. He later sat by Romeo (Kojo Agu) in the indoor shooting range listening to one of his 'riveting' stories about how he got his nickname.

"_And then I'm like, hey pal, I don't fucking like you"_

And to top it off, he got the physical Dutch kept bothering him about. Now it was time for dinner to finish the day up. Finally he arrived in the mess-hall, it was a clean metallic room with rows of tables and such, a couple were tables brought in from the Separatist Covenant cruisers to support the Elites. However something was wrong Nobody was in their seats, and he could hear… cheering? James looked to the side to see a crowd of UNSC marines, a couple ODSTS in off duty military gear, in the middle was a very tall Elite with a familiar shorter man fighting him…

_Great, another brawl_

"You humans are so predictable, always wanting to point fun at the Sangheili." The Elite started. The man facing against him took a couple steps; James recognized it to be his Commanding officer, Eddy Buck.

"Sorry Hinge-Head I didn't know you had feelings, after what you did to Reach" Eddy immediately replied, James looked to see that the line was clear for the moment, and that the food being served was… spaghetti, his favorite. James snakilly walked through the crowd into the line, half-heartedly paying attention. Technically Buck wasn't the Commanding officer, it was Veronica Dare, but ever since Mombasa, things had changed. He grabbed a tray to see the Cafeteria worker.

"Lance Corporal Dante, good to see you wouldn't pass up a meal." He immediately said. He nodded.

"Good to see you too Herb." He answered back, the cafeteria worker nodded and put a nice serving on the tray, and James could smell its intoxicating aroma and nodded.

"thanks." He said. He grabbed a glass of water and slowly walked out towards the benches, he could hear more griping from the fight. He sat down at the place his squad usually sat and began to watch the fireworks.

"Well human… it's hard to believe that a woman is you're commanding officer, or maybe it's just because she tops you in bed." the foolish elite said proudly.

"Ooh." He heard some of the marines say, how did the elite know? Perhaps it was from all that "snooping" him and Mickey did. He put his fork into the glob of noodles and sauce and started rapping it around it. He took another glance at the group.

Suddenly Buck jumped onto the elite with fists clenched punching him again and again then the elite caught his fist and head butted him off the crowd cheered as a complex battle of hand to hand combat took place. It was Veteran vs. hinge head. This fight, like most others included classics, like the kick balls (or whatever Elites had) an attempted sleeper hold, and then sword fighting with nearby broomsticks… Well that part didn't happen, but Rookie thought it would have been. HE saw them going at it for five solid minutes until Dutch and Romeo came in to hold down their second in command, as well as other elites, but it seemed that elite had excellent self-control and didn't need it's friends.

As the fight settled down, the audience got bored and all slowly returned to their tables, James saw his second in command slowly resign and left, Romeo and Dutch followed.A few minutes later Mickey came down to sit with a tray

"Hey Rookie how you doing" Mickey said, Rookie didn't even look up as he was digging in to his food. Mickey groaned as he looked at his food.

"Ah spaghetti, my least favorite food in the whole stinking universe." Rookie didn't reply as he slurped up a noodle, Mickey watched him disgustedly and asked.

"You want mine?" Rookie looked at him for a moment and quickly grabbed Crespo's tray, the private nodded and leaned back.

"You can have everything but the crackers, I have to eat something." Mickey continued while grabbing the crackers off the tray. Rookie nodded for a moment, he handed Michael his crackers as a sort of trade off. Mickey smiled and opened up a pouch.

"Did you hear about the new ODST recruit coming? Sounds like you're going to have someone you can be superior too eh buddy." Mickey said as he was munching. Rookie never liked to talk much especially when he was eating, so he just ate and paid slight attention to appease his best friend. This was their ritual, let Mickey talk, and then nod or contribute if it's a good idea. Mickey nodded and watched the other marines hurry into the line.

"We came in at the best time." He said. He finished off the package of crackers and then opened another while drinking from his glass of water. He munched down the rest of the crackers and slowly stood up.

"Alright, we have a new mission… according to the Gunny, let's get going." He said. Rookie finished and quickly disposed his tray.

Rookie obliged and followed his friend to the debriefing room, the trip usually consisted of going through hallway after hallway, passing by other marines along with two dozen elevator rides it took right along 36 minutes to get there, which gave James plenty of time to listen to Mickey's account of what really happened to Elvis. Finally they returned to the conversation of shortly five hours ago.

"As I was saying Rookie, when you're in that situation, you gotta gun it, or die try-" Mickey was cut off when they heard an irritated feminine voice.

"God damn it, what do you mean the room I'm looking for doesn't exist along with this ship. You were working well five minutes ago." The voice yelled, James looked ahead to see it was a Marine about his age with Red Hair bundled in a ponytail, and she was busy yelling at one of the shipboard AIs.

"We are sorry, please try again in exactly six days" The A.I. responded. The girl got even more pissed, Mickey laughed.

"Tough break for her." He said. Rookie slowly nodded.

"Why does this unit have to be paired with a fucking dumb AI?" She said slamming her head into the terminal.

The AI avatar disappeared and the power from the terminal left. She breathed slightly and then put her hand to her head and uttered an

"…Ow." James looked to Mickey and slowly approached the girl, Mickey was moving his hand a throat slitting manner, telling him to abort. The girl still seemed pissed. James slowly opened his mouth.

"Do you need help with-?"

"What do you want!" she yelled at him, she looked straight at him. He stepped back slightly, getting a good look at her; she was about their age, and had an oval shaped face with piercing green eyes. She wore an off duty military attire which was gray. HE stepped back to Mickey who immediately whispered in his ear about two things her pissed off nature, and something about her in a bikini; Rookie flicked him on the head. Romeo often went very descriptive about his "encounters" so much it practically poisoned Mickey slightly. Rookie sighed then looked at the woman.

"Do you need help with directions or something?" HE answered back, she slowly closed her eyes and then calmed down for the moment, she opened them back up.

"Sorry about that. Me and A.I's have a bad history. Anyways, I was just transferred here. Do you know where the debriefing room is?" She asked eyes still locked on his.

Rookie was about to answer but suddenly out of nowhere, Mickey butted into the conversation.

"Sure, I'm private First class Michael Crespo, you can call me Mickey and this is Lance Corporal, um what's your name again Rookie?" James sighed; Mickey was much attuned to using nicknames so much, he tends to forget the actual name, just like Romeo's real name Kojo. To keep things simple, James said.

"You can call me Rookie"

"And you are?" Mickey asked. The girl sighed and looked at them both.

"Oh sorry I'm Anne Faire, I was recently transferred here".

"Nice to meet you, Anne" Rookie said holding his hand out. The girl nodded and quickly shook it; she seemed practically bipolar considering her outburst literally 30 seconds ago.

"Nice to meet you too… er Rookie" Faire said smiling.

"Well now that we are all acquainted lets head to the debriefing room" Mickey said leading the way.

Mickey led, while Faire walked beside him, and stayed in the back paying attention.

"So, how long have you known each other?" she asked. Mickey quickly answered back.

"A couple years, we trained at the same academy, on Luna." He said. Rookie sighed, since they had met each other at the academy in Naniwa, Mickey had clung to him and considered him his best friend. Which was the case, but it just bothered him to no end. Mickey laughed then looked at Faire.

"You know, he wasn't as enthusiastic when he met me." He said. She sighed.

"I wonder why." She immediately said. Mickey sighed. Rookie laughed slightly, meeting Mickey wasn't really the highlight of his life. He looked around the hallway to see that Faire had slowly lowered back to him. He smiled slightly. Mickey kept talking without noticing Faire had stepped back.

"So how long have you been here?" she asked clearly deciding who she could squeeze the most actual information out of. He shrugged.

"hm, about a month, my squad was sent out on a couple missions before the jump, but nothing really big, unless you count Mombasa." He said. Faire nodded and then Mickey slipped back lower and started talking again.

James continued to walk down the hallway following closely from behind.


	2. Chapter 2

The trio of Marines James Dante, Michael Crespo, and Anne Faire walked through the hallway of the ship SAY-MY-NAME, they were busy talking about brute chieftens.

"I faced a chieftain once… it almost killed Romeo fun times, how about you Anne?" Romeo asked. The newbie sighed and then answered back.

"Well when me and the rest of my team were deployed into the Epsilon Indi system, one came out right at me and almost got to me until our sniper stopped it, took 4 shots, but that was just to bring it down then we had to shoot it until the damn thing died, the thing was screaming about a journey and the prophets." Anne said freely. James and Mickey stared at each other, then at her, they quickly decided not to go into details, Mickey looked to Rookie.

"How about you Rookie, what happened back in New Mombasa and the captains?" Mickey asked.

"Well… when we were waiting for you guys, we had to fight a large group of Covenant, a chieftain came at me, but Buck got it before it could try anything… then we had to deal with Hunters…"

"Assassination huh, well if it was me I would have just went with my rocket launcher. That would have taught the thing a lesson." Mickey stated obviously. James rolled his eyes.

"Actually Dare saved the rockets for the hunters, good times" Mickey sighed disappointed.

"Then you and the others came with the ship and got us out of there" Rookie finished. They were slowing down slightly. Anne paid attention then asked.

"How long were you down there Rookie" Anne asked.

"Let's see about maybe 6-7 hours, I spent most of the time knocked out through, it sucked." Rookie explained. It was true, he had spent most of the time in his pod after that slip-space rupture.

"I bet, and that was you're first mission as an ODST, right?" Anne asked. James slowly nodded.

"Yeah… atleast as part of Buck's squad… wasn't too bad." He said. Mickey sighed realizing he had never asked Rookie about what happened in Mombasa. He then looked to Faire.

"How did you get in the Corps, Anne?" Mickey asked. The girls thought for a moment.

"Well I-" she was cut off when she noticed they were at the debriefing room, "I'll tell you later." Anne said as she went through the door.

Mickey looked at Rookie and said

"So Rookie what do you think about her?" James looked at him slightly puzzled.

"She's fine… I guess, I don't really know her well enough… hopefully she's good with a gun. Mickey gave off a smirked expression and nudged Rookie.

"I bet you hope she's good at more than just that." Mickey said out loud. James looked at her strangely.

"What?" Mickey was known to be a creep at times.

"Nothing Rookie. So that's it nothing else to say about it?" Mickey questioned, obviously trying to get James to admit something about the girl.

"What else is there to say, we don't know her that well yet… and I doubt we're in the same team." Rookie said annoyed.

"Just saying, you just seemed so interested when she talks about stuff." Mickey said. A hint of jelousy in his voice. James sighed looking at him.

What she talked about is, hell anything other people talk about is better than what you say at dinner." HE said. Mickey smirked not taking offense.

"Right. And the very fact that she's a girl had nothing to do with it?" Mickey asked. Rookie sighed.

_Idiot thinks I like her, she might be the prettiest girl on this ship, doesn't mean I'm head over heals about some stranger though._

"What do you want from me, a love letter?" Rookie asked. Mickey laughed slightly and said.

"Well that might help prove my point" Mickey teased. Rookie sighed, his hand massaged his temples.

"Shut up, let's just get our debriefing. Okay?" Rookie asked. HE then walked through the door into the room, leaving Mickey alone.

"Ah young love" Mickey said amusingly to himself. He slowly walked through the room.

The debriefing room was a classroom sized area that which consisted of a large map, chairs as well as some weapons. It had metal flooring and metal walls. Up on the ceiling, the lights emitted a dark blue light and had a table in the middle. As Mickey entered, Eddy Buck stood up and said "You're late. To busy peeping?"

"What? I just came in here maybe 30 seconds after Rookie, what are you-"

"Just saying, if a wraith tank comes in, and you're not here… we'd all be dead, explosive expert." Buck said with the slightest hint of mocking in his voice.

"As for peeping, I think you know what I'm talking about." Mickey sighed.

"We told you we needed to get some papers and you guys just happened to be-"

"We can talk about this later Michael" Dare said cutting him off "Now sit down", she finished.

Mickey slowly looked down and sat at a seat, Spooks tended to have this scary quality about them, That's what ONI was, scary… He sat right next to Rookie, who was sitting next to the new girl, they were talking.

"What happened?" She whispered. Rookie sighed.

"Some things are just better left unsaid." Which was somewhat honest, and luckily he didn't get the full picture of what was 'seen'. In a row nearby sat Romeo and Dutch, the teams sniper and closecombat-heavy weapon expert considering Dutch was cross trained in using a Spartan laser.

Mickey butted into Rookie and Faire's conversation and whispered

"What are you guys whispering about-?" Mickey immediately was cut off as Buck approached the team.

"As I was saying, this is Anne Faire, our new squad member. Make her feel welcome." The veteran said. The other members didn't really take notice, they simply glanced at her, reminded James of when he met, the only person to notice was Mickey, and that was just because they were bunk mates at boot camp. James couldn't believe what he was hearing… he wasn't the Rookie anymore… well it should seem that way.

James hunched next to Faire and whispered.

"Why didn't you tell us you were the new recruit?" She rolled her eyes.

"You never asked, and besides it was kinda obvious." she said somewhat amused. Buck sighed looking at his squad; they were like school children when the teacher was gone.

"AHEM!" HE said loudly. The five troopers immediately paid attention.

"Anyways marines we got a new mission so listen up" Buck said. He paced around in the room and stopped at the middle table where the holo map was.

"This squad is going to be deployed onto the ark to help kill the prophet of truth" Buck said pointing to an image on the map. It was a sort of eight pronged circle. They all quickly paid close attention, killing the prophet was very important to the UNSC.

"We are going to be deployed after the master chief locates the silent cartographer, which will lead us to the ARK's control center" Buck finished, "Any questions?" He asked. Romeo sat up.

"And who is this master chief you are talking about gunny?" Romeo said snidely. They all knew who the chief was, a Spartan, Sierra 117. But Romeo just asked to try and make Buck feel like an idiot. He groaned looking down on Kojo.

"Good news Romeo he's here… come on in, sir." Buck said while moving out of the way of the door as it opened. A large figure in green armor entered the room, which was roughly over 7 feet tall, with an orange visor… a Spartan.

"Thank you Gunn ray Sergeant" Romeo's eyes opened widely, Rookie whispered.

"Who's that?" Dutch answered him with "Rookie that's the chief."

_That guy… damn, he's so… tall_

James sighed. This guy was in all the holo-papers ever since his program went public. The Master Chief, Sierra 117, James heard someone was already writing a book about him. And he was in the damn room with them… In the flesh… well actually MJOLNIR armor. The armored man slowly spoke; his voice was cool and somewhat low.

"Hello, troopers."


	3. Chapter 3

The atmosphere in the room was dead silent; James breathed slowly and looked at the long time war hero. The strange sheen of the blue light of the Spartan's green armor seemed somewhat… cool. He took a couple steps to gather himself.

"This mission will take place one week from now, the mission specifics are confidential and should not be spoken to anyone, except for members of this squad, Johnson's team, or Commander Cox." He said. The ODST's gave a slight nod while Romeo rolled his eyes.

"Guy's too proud." He whispered to Dutch, who immediately slapped his side. The chief took no notice to it.

"As for mission specifics, once I retrieve the silent cartographer, the map that will show us the ARK's control center, this squad has been assigned to me for rendevouz… The next steps are being decided by Commander Cox and Keyes." They knew who these two were, by Keyes he meant Miranda Keyes, Jacob Keyes' daughter, and Luke Cox, an ONI operative who was assigned to lead the SAY-MY-NAME. The chief continued.

"Now, any questions?" He asked. For a big war hero… he wasn't quite the great public speaker people thought him to be. Romeo raised his hand up, The chief looked at him and slowly nodded.

"How exactly are you so sure you will survive to make it to the cartographer" Romeo said disrespectfully. Buck stared at him.

"Romeo do you know who you're talking too-?" The chief cut Buck off.

"It's alright Gunn Ray sergeant, If the UNSC didn't think I'd survive the mission they wouldn't of sent me." He said. He looked at them.

"Any more questions?" Mickey slowly raised his hand. Rookie had a feeling he was going to ask how Spartans go to the bathroom, but instead this was actually intelligent.

"Sir… What's your preference on weapons?" he asked. Which was a good question so they could plan accordingly. The chief looked at them and sighed.

"MA5B assault rifle, standard issue mags." He said mechanically. HE then slowly approached the door.

"You are all dismissed." He said, the 7 feet tall Spartan walked through the door, the team waited until it was fully shut to begin.

"Way to piss off the Spartan, Romeo!" Dutch yelled

"So he's a Spartan, so what! It doesn't give him the right to act like he owns the place-. "Romeo was cut off as Dutch's fist made contact with his jawbone. Dutch's fist returned with vengeance but was blocked by Romeo's own; as the fist's collided they both got bloodier, they were in a full out fist fight. Rookie watched the disgusting display of strength from the two marines. Buck was fuming, Dare was annoyed, Mickey was smiling; Anne was a bit bored, all Rookie could do was watch. This was not his fight. Buck slowly and deliberately approached them.

"Knock it off you two!" Buck yelled with eyes full of anger.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Dutch, you too Romeo!" He continued.

"See you later gunny I'm heading to my quarters" Dutch said mockingly, he quickly headed to the door and shut it. Romeo followed in suit.

"Same for me" Romeo said as he left the room and also left Buck in a very pissed off state.

"God damn it what is wrong with you people?" Buck screamed. Rookie sat back watching.

_Gonna yell himself to death one day._

"Well if that's all I guess I'll be heading to my room too" Mickey said while gunning for the door.

"Oh no Mickey, you don't get out of it that easily… we still haven't talked about that interruption, get in that room and sit down" Buck said while pointing at a nearby closet, usually meant for private briefings away from the company. Mickey obliged to his 2nd in command and slowly walked into the closet. Rookie, Faire, and Dare were now just standing there and they could hear an incredible wave of frenzied rants aimed to emotionally cripple a certain explosive specialist.

"Son of a bitch…" Anne said in sheer awe of the velocity of taunts. Rookie had to admit, there was a certain quality of masculinity in chewing out your private, especially when he had to watch two soldiers fight over nothing. Faire kept watching then sighed.

"What happened?" she askedwhile turning towards Veronica Dare, the woman sighed and shook her head.

"That is none of your business recruit" she replied annoyed. Faire stepped back, backing off.

"Rookie, Faire is new here so can you show her around the ship" Dare asked in an obvious manner to get them out of the room. Rookie nodded his head to his CO and left with Faire by his side.

The ginger soldier walked right beside him outside of the room, where they could still hear a muffled screaming.

_Bet he's been waiting all day for that_

Rookie turned towards Faire, she still seemed to be paying attention to the room.

"Well… what do you wanna see first?" he asked. She finally looked away from the room.

"Hm… Do you know where the Mess-Hall is? I literally haven't eaten anything in days." She said groaning.

"All right, follow me." Rookie said as he started walking down the path, Faire followed.

"So how did you get into the Odsts?" Rookie asked nonchalantely while walking. Faire paused for a moment then answered.

"My old CO recommended me to Buck and I always wanted to join… my parents were… they died at Reach." She said, her tone dropped, this must have been a touchy subject.

"I'm sorry." The girl quickly shook her head.

"No… It's fine, I could have been stationed there, and dying for nothing isn't my kind of thing." She said. Rookie sighed.

"Yeah I guess, but your parents…"

Faire groaned and said "They are probably proud to die on the battlefield then be civilians who were killed on the spot or worse. But enough about me, what about you?" Faire said changing the subject.

"How did you get in the ODST's…? Rookie?" Faire continued.

"I was the sole survivor of my defense picket back in new Jerusalem, when I was found alive Buck had me transferred to his squad… It was… strange." Rookie explained

"Rough, it must of sucked being out there all alone" Faire commented

"You get used to it." Rookie answered, he sighed and realized he didn't want to talk too much about himself right now; he was thinking of something that occurred much earlier than Jerusalem, and that was something he'd like to keep private.

"So tell me about where you grew up?" Rookie asked. The girl sighed trying to think.

"Well let's see I grew up on earth-."

Finally the duo made the long trip to the mess hall; some marines were still in there eating, others were just chatting.

"Well we're here, this is the mess hall, if you want something to eat go into the line and get some grub, I'll be at the table." Rookie told her as he went over to their squad's table. 3 minutes later Anne came walking to the table with a tray of spaghetti and some water.

"The line was pretty short, looks like I came in at a good time" Anne said while looking at her food. Rookie nodded agreeing.

"I bet, I didn't have much of a line considering the brawl a couple hours ago." HE said. Anne nodded.

"Good plan, it must have scared some of the marines away" Faire said while taking in a spoonful.

They sat there for the moment in utter silence.

At the exact moment an emotionally deafened Mickey came and sat down on a stool, Rookie slowly looked at him.

"What happened?" Rookie asked his friend. Mickey looked down then sighed.

"Oh the usual, Buck yells, I wish I was dead… Buck yells louder, I look for a pistol to cap myself, Buck yells even louder… yeah…" Mickey kept looking down.

"What did he say?" Anne asked

"Oh he called me a lousy soldier, a painful guy to know, a wussy with many different perverted concepts, a pedophile with bad taste, and if I have kids he'll tell them how much of a loser I am, you know, usual stuff." Mickey stated sadly. Rookie sighed, Buck did have a thing for yelling at one of them. Mickey continued.

"It first started off when-".

"You know what, I think I'll go to bed, I'm just… er… tired." Rookie said while leaving his stool.

"Count me in" Anne said leaving her spaghetti on the table, making the food Mickey's only company. He sighed looking at the sphagetti, he slowly slid the tray to him.

"I guess I'll drown myself in this crap…" Mickey said as he grabbed the fork and started attempting to eat Faire's food.

"Alone again... naturally" Mickey started humming to himself.

"Well this is my stop" Anne said while going towards the door to her room. James smiled slightly.

"So what do you think of the life as an odst?" Faire sighed slightly.

"Too soon to say, I think I need to go on a mission and survive in order to give a full opinion, so far it's good." Anne answered. She then groaned.

"Does your squad seriously act that way all the time?" she asked him, James shrugged.

"Not all the time… but it could be worse, Mickey could be the CO." He said. Faire chuckled slightly.

"Good point, all the depression, and the stress would get to him… then it'd get to us." She said, her hand made a gun gesture to her head.

Rookie realized he was three inches far from her face and blushing.

_A bit too close for comfort._

He took a couple steps back. The girl looked at him.

"So tomorrow I'll come knocking to continue the tour of the ship." He said. She nodded slightly.

"Alright… see you then." She said and walked through her door.

Rookie thought to himself over something and started walking to his own room. He got to the door slid the key card and walked in. The room had metal floor and metal wall with two cots and a small nightstand next to one; Rookie didn't even bother taking his clothes of and just slipped right into the cot for some sleep and thought to himself.

_Why did I suddenly freeze up like that? Must have been nothing._

"Well today was pretty… eventful." he finished

Rookie then rose up in his bed and opened up his knapsack. Inside was his closest belongings, some change, some old photos of his time in the marines… a picture of his parents, and old wooden box. HE sighed looking at the picture and then putted the stuff back inside the bag. He leaned back on his cot and slowly shut his eyes.

_We miss you… son._


	4. Chapter 4

ROOKIE

"_Don't go… I'm sorry_

Rookie woke up with a thud, he noticed Mickey (who was also his roommate) trying to get out of bed without getting hurt. He failed… again; Mickey was on the floor with his blanket wrapped around his legs like a knot.

Mickey eyed Rookie and said:

"You going to help me out?" it sounded more like a demand then a question but he obeyed and started "de knotting" his friends blanket.

It took three minutes but he finally got the blanket off his friend, and took two steps back to give Mickey space to get up. Mickey slowly stood and brushed himself off.

"Thanks Rookie, you have no idea how annoying that sheet was." The private said, James sighed.

"Apparently I do, that's like the maybe thirteenth time you got stuck like that."

"Wow… sucks to be you." Mickey said smiling.

James sighed, he didn't ask for this, Mickey was a shitty roommate, and usually it made things difficult.

"Why were we we even paired together as roommates? The others, even Anne has their own rooms." He said. Mickey yawned sighing.

"You heard Buck I can't be trusted alone." Mickey he had a slight grin, like he enjoyed ruining Rookie's day.

"Why?"

"So just in case stuff like that happens again," Mickey said while pulling a picture out of his bedstand, it was an old looking photograph of Mickey caught in his blanket like the moment a couple minutes ago, it was taken by Romeo.

"Oh, right…"

"So changing the subject, how did that tour of the ship go so far?" Mickey said while putting the picture away, Rookie took a couple paces around the room

"You two hit it off?" Mickey said teasingly.

"What! No I just took her to the mess hall because she was hungry." By why was he telling Mickey this? He was just there.

"Right, then you abandoned me and she followed, you sly dog you." Mickey continued.

"I escorted her to her room and promised to be back today to continue the tour, idiot. How did you even find out about it?" Rookie asked.

"Dare told me, you know after Buck killed me on the inside." Mickey said obviously.

"Why do you think I have a thing for Anne? I just met her yesterday." Rookie asked annoyed.

"What is this, twenty questions? Rookie I can just tell there's something between you two okay, and besides I have a girlfriend so she's all yours." Mickey said joking.

"What's wrong with you?" Rookie asked.

"Lots of things but I'm not here because of that. It's because of what I can destroy and how long it takes me to do so." Mickey said referring to both his job and possibly his love life.

"You're worse than Romeo." Mickey smirked.

"Anyways, thanks for getting me out of that, I'll just take a shower… have fun on your date lover-boy." He said.

"Why does this always happen." Rookie said while still looking at the door. He then turned his head towards Mickey's cot and noticed a magnum Mickey kept there, so he did sleep with a loaded gun, he reached for it.

"No" Rookie yelled inside his mind and set down the pistol, wasn't anything serious, just a small joke in his head, contemplating Mickey's 'unfortunate' death. He then sighed then thought back to the dream he had… He sighed then sat down on his bed and looked at the wooden box once more. He shook his head and slowly got up, remembering something of vital importance.

"Shit, I still need to change."

Rookie was walking out of the shower/changing room and started heading to Faire's room to continue the tour he was instructed to give from Dare. Marines walked nearby and were all busy chatting about the fight last night, Eddy Buck was popular.

_Wonder what part of the ship she'll want to see…_

James approached the door to her 'dorm/apartment' and knocked.

"Knock Knock Knock" He heard a tumbling from the room.

"Who is it?" a voice erupted. He stepped back slightly.

"It's me… Rookie" Rookie answered. He heard a slight sigh on the other side.

"Wait out there perv" the voice answered back. James sighed leaning back. Why did she have to be so immature at these times? Sure he was given a mission to show her around, but that was it.

FAIRE

Anne Faire walked out of her assigned room wearing an ODST jumpsuit and had her red hair traditionaly tied up in a ponytail. She looked forward and she saw a figure with short light brown hair, blue eyes and a nice smile, Rookie, well he probably had a different name, but she could ask him about it later.

"Hey Rookie you here to continue the tour?" Faire asked.

"I did promise didn't I?" Rookie asked smiling. She stepped towards him.

"Right, So where to next?" Rookie shrugged and scratched his ehad.

"Well how about we figure that out at breakfast?"

_A date, very smooth_

She could tell this guy liked her quite a bit, and he had no intentions of such an ordeal, though it could be fun to play around with him.

"Move your feet, I'm hungry." she ordered, leading the way.

She started walking down the path towards the messhall, while Rookie followed closely. She looked at him then asked.

"So Rookie… tell me about yourself?" The marine looked down trying to think, he very obviously didn't want tot alk about it, but strangely enough… he plunged on.

"I'm from Luna, only child, I never really got to know my family outside my parents." He said. He seemed to be deep in thought and then continued.

"They were both college teachers or something like that. Not much else to say." HE said sighing.

_Not much else to say?_

"You were never that close to people?" Anne questioned.

"No not really, I wasn't that social, I had a few friends in school, nothing really groundbreaking… I met Mickey in the corps, but not that many people." He said. She slowly nodded.

"What about a girlfriend or something?"

_Shit, that might have been a bit too forward_

Rookie sighed and then answered.

"No, my parents convinced me all sorts of crazy things to keep me away from the opposite sex.".

_Classic parenting, no sex, no problem_

"Such as?"

"Oh you know the usual type stuff… like if you touch a girl they're pregnant if you see a girl they're pregnant, and if you even think of a girl they're pregnant… said I could only date once I'm out of the house." Rookie said in joking but truthful manner.

"So you're parents are unstable, and you had a very shitty childhood…" She said in a very matter-of-factly kind of way. Rookie smiled slightly.

"Yeah but they're still my parents… if they saw you, they might go ape shit… or worse."

_See me? _

"Why" Anne asked acknowledging her teammate.

"Well aren't you a girl?" Rookie asked.

"No, I'm a cat with boobs, you see the hair, I'm totally an orange tab." Anne answered jokingly. Usually she wouldn't point fun at herself, but it wasn't a big deal. The two friends laughed and then noticed they reached their destination.

"Let's eat", Rookie said noticing the long line. They entered the line and according to the menu for today, breakfast was oats and milk. The people in line were continuing their small talk taking barely any notice to the duo. Eventually the line went through until they were able to get they're cereal. They grabbed the milk and went right over to they're usual spot to chow down. Sitting at their table already was Dutch who seemed to be enjoying the cereal.

"Rookie, Newbie, what's going on?" He asked.

"Not much, what was all that about last night with you and Romeo… and you're fists?" Rookie asked.

"Look if you ask me the idiot need to learn some proper respect, and if I have to beat it into him, then I'll happily comply." Dutch boasted proudly. ODSTs didn't take kindly to Spartans, well some of them didn't, because of the story from a long time ago about a trainee killing a couple helljumpers.

"Yeah, but why in that brutal manner?" Anne asked.

"I'll tell you about it another day, Faire. So tell me, what's going on?" Dutch answered and then asked.

"Well Rookie was showing me around the ship-"

"I've noticed, so it seems you two have taken quite a liking for each other, going steady eh?" Dutch said while looking at them in a weird fashion. It made her feel… awkward. The marine took another bite our of his oats.

"What?" Rookie asked. Dutch slowly got up.

"Oh nothing, Anyways Buck sent me a message that we have a training op with the elites at 1,000 hours so you two love birds' better finish, and then get over to the training room." HE started walking away. Faire turned to Dutch who was still nearby.

"Wait, where's the training room?" Anne asked.

"Ask your boyfriend?" Dutch said referring to Rookie while leaving the hall. She could feel her hands curl up.

"Hey, he's not my boyfriend… ass-hole!" Anne yelled in a rude matter. Rookie immediately stepped away slightly.

"Seriously what's wrong with you people?" Rookie asked out loud.

"Rookie, shut up and eat you're oats" Anne ordered.

He complied.

"Yes mam." And he then returned his spoon to the bowl once more as Anne did the same.

DUTCH

Taylor "Dutch" Miles walked into a large room that contains weapon racks and entryways into a practice firefight room, only to be greeted by Buck's still somewhat pissed off face.

"Hey Gunny how'd you sleep?" Dutch asked while grabbing one of the practice Spartan lasers off the weapons rack. It was something used to train them in using. In most ops they had, they would use stun rounds, which when impacted would frieze up the armor and knock the wearer out, and on such short notice they were able to do the same with covenant Weaponry… it still confused Dutch on how they were handling fuel guns though.

"Just get ready to go Dutch, I already wasted it all on Mickey" Buck said while grapping a helmet.

"So what kind of op are we doing?" Dutch asked while going towards another helmet.

"As I said in the message, this squad is going to have a practice round against the elites on board the ship; we are both going to be using practice rounds so no one gets hurt. So swap the battery pack and get ready to go. Where are the others?" Buck said in a very long sentence.

"I have no clue where Mickey could be, and Rookie and his girlfriend are probably nearing this very second" Dutch explained.

"Girlfriend, wait you mean Faire?" Buck asked, Dutch laughed slightly.

"I know Dare gave him orders but… I doubt they would so quickl-"

"Calm down gunny, I see them hanging out, so I assume." HE said. Buck slowly nodded.

"So I see Romeo's doing some target practice eh" Dutch asked changing the subject. Buck nodded.

"Yeah, he came in this morning and went straight into that room to snipe targets. He never stops." Buck said while looking in the unbreakable window.

"Anyways Mickey told me he'd be running late due to some bet he had with another marine so we should just have to wait for Rookie and Faire." Buck said while turning towards Buck.

The door opened to reveal and elite in very unusual armor with an energy sword strapped to his thigh. He had some sort of mark in the middle of his armor.

"Hello Arbiter, so good you can make it… sir." Buck said while facing the alien. This was the leader of the Elites in all his glory.

"Hello marine, I wouldn't miss the chance to see how this would turn out." The alien said while facing the glass.

"Well when your sanghelli get here, we can start the round." Buck said still facing the elite.

"Any moment now, so where's the rest of your squad and you're ONI officer?" the Arbiter asked while still paying attention to Romeo's shooting.

"Well three from my squad should be here soon and Dare told me she has to deal with paperwork so she couldn't make it." Buck said to the tall elite.

"I see" Arbiter said while not moving an inch. Dutch watched as for some reason Romeo turned his sniper rifle towards the alien and started firing repeatedly towards the Arbiter, even though he was just hitting the glass.

"I'm sorry; Romeo is still a bit pissed off about the… well you know." Dutch said.

"It's alright, this isn't the first time." the Arbiter said while starting to laugh.

_Damn son of a bitch_

Dutch and Buck joined in for a short moment. A few minutes later the door opened again to reveal Rookie and the new recruit Anne walking into the room, in a conversation over ass kicking.

"Rookie, you wanna time the hit just right in order to-" Faire was cut off when she noticed they reached their destination.

"Rookie, you're just in time, get into the armor and grab two weapons on the rack. You too Anne, have any of you seen Mickey?" Buck said all at once.

"No I haven't seen him much" Anne said while slipping into the armor with ease.

"What about you Rookie?" Buck asked.

"Last time I saw him he was going to take a shower and mentioned being emotionally deafened." Rookie answered. Buck seemed to not notice the last bit. HE still seemed somewhat angry, was it Mickey being gone, or Rookie mentioning that in front of the Elite, thus embarrassing himself, or was it still Romeo?

"Good times, well Rookie, I'd like you to meet someone, this is the Arbiter, he's with the Elites so treat him with respect." Buck said eying him. Rookie immediately stepped back nodding. Buck took a couple paces towards the wall and softly started hitting his head against it.

"Alright sir." Rookie said nodding, he looked towards the Arbiter.

"How do you do?" He asked offering his hand to the Arbiter. The alien stared at him and slowly shook his hand. Dutch did not expect that. HE then turned to the door and saw it open with seven armored Elites entered the room in a very menacing fashion with plasma rifles on their sides. They were roughly seven feet tall. Buck looked to all of them, and then sighed.

"Well that's everyone except Mickey." Dutch said annoyed.

"Who's this Mickey?" One of the elites asked. The elites obviously wanted to start the fighting.

"Our Explosives specialist, we have no idea where he is." Dutch answered.

"Oh you mean that fool?" The Elite asked.

"Yeah that's him." Dutch answered back.

The door suddenly once more opened to reveal the Master Chief and Mickey staggering behind.

"Is he yours, Gunn ray sergeant?" Chief said talking to Buck.

"Yep, that's him, what did he do?" Buck asked while eying Mickey.

"He was asking me a lot of …personal questions." Chief said. Dutch stared at him.

_Personal questions?_

"Well we were wondering where he was, so now we can start that practice op planned for today. Would you like to watch chief?" Buck asked the Spartan.

"Sure, I'd really like to see if this squad is as good as they say." The Spartan answered.

The Master Chief walked over to the spot near where Arbiter was standing, and started watching Romeo fire again and again and again.

"Private get you're armor on!" Buck yelled at Mickey.

Shortly later the ODSTs were all in their armor and chose their weapons Dutch grabbed an SMG with sound suppressor in conjunction to his Spartan laser, Anne grabbed a Shotgun and a Magnum with a scope, Romeo came in to grab a Magnum also. Buck picked up a Magnum and grabbed his personal favorite an assault rifle, Mickey picked up a modified training Rocket Launcher as well as an SMG like Dutch's. Rookie Grabbed the SMG and the Magnum with a scope. The Elites just set their plasma rifles to stun.

"Alright troopers, remember this is a practice match so only use the training rounds and get ready for a session… Oh and no whining like a bitch." Buck ordered, Mickey sighed.

When they were all ready, the six ODSTs followed the elites into a room with large rocks that could be used for cover, some grass, and an artificial light on the ceiling. The two groups were getting in position on both sides as a countdown to three started.

One

Two

Three, start

"This is gonna be fun." Dutch said as his helmet polarized.

(alright, progress on fixing these chapters is going well, and I already started writing for part 2, chapters 1 and 2 are close to finished)


	5. Chapter 5

ROMEO

The op started straight away and Romeo barely had any time to get into the tree that was put conveniently in the back of the room. HE slowly caught onto the bark, feeling it prick his fingers as he reached up. He finally climbed to the 'top' and then sat down, he slowly pulled out his sniper rifle and zoomed in to see what was happening. From what he could see, Buck was already engaged in a fight with an Elite.

ROOKIE

Rookie noticed Romeo's impeccable precision with his guns always wanting to get the shot perfect. He was under the cover on the ODST's side of the field, jamming practice rounds into his silenced SMG ammo slot. Once finished he decided to see what the hell was going on.

The elites were firing non stop on Buck who evaded every shot and countered with bullets that didn't really do much considering the elite's shields. Anne was grabbing the grenades both frag and sticky, Mickey was under a rock next to him trying to open small talk. And Dutch was looking for a good time to fire his Spartan laser. And the Elites were busy attempting murder on Buck. HE was an old pro at this.

Mickey was the first to get out of cover to help support their captain.

MICKEY

Mickey ran out to try and fire at the elites after their captain, he started with his SMG. Tiny projectiles filled the air with a sense of damnation as Mickey fired; buck welcomed his company when they both started fire on the elite in the front, the one in the yellow armor. The elite's shields finally went down and the ammo started piercing the sad warrior until it was knocked out due to this is training ammo and not the real thing. One Elite down, six to go, five of the elites were in the back while one was attacking Mickey and Buck and the other was on the floor. Right around now Mickey would pull out his rocket launcher to get an easy "kill" but then he realized he left it next to Rookie while he was in a mad rush helping buck (who now got behind some decent cover) and the five elites were coming to support the sixth.

"Rookie bring my rocket launcher, they're surrounding me." Mickey ordered out

"Yeah, fat chance!" Rookie answered while noticing the elites surrounding him.

Mickey started running while the elite have started opening fire getting hit only once and on his pack. The elite's threw one of their grenades toward him, he jumped and failed, who started to freak out very loudly, so loud it started to scare the aliens.

"Get it off, get it off!" Mickey wailed not caring if the alien's decided to hit him. Buck ran to him annoyed and tore the grenade off before detonation and threw it aimlessly, the alien's just looked confused. Mickey was still convinced he was going to die he kept on screaming, normally this would be fine but the team had their radio's on... and he was screaming on it.

"Mickey!" Anne screamed out. Mickey froze.

"Shut the fuck up, I really don't want to be def." she commanded.

Mickey stopped flailing and started to get up and ran back to the rocks, not realizing the elites were still processing what just happened.

ROMEO

After Mickey's "moment" Romeo brought down his site and fired two shots on one of the elites and pretty much restarted the round. Romeo couldn't get his sites on any of the other five elites since they were going so fast.

"Gunny, can you slow them down or something? I can't get a clear shot. And I think one of them is heading into their own little sniping spot." Romeo asked into the radio.

"Fine, Mickey start actually doing something with that rocket launcher of yours, the sniper in that tree on the other side, take em out." Romeo watched Mickey start to aim his rocket launcher getting ready to press the trigger when suddenly the sniper elite shot at Mickey's feat and caused him to fire in the opposite direction… towards Romeo.

"Son of a-." Romeo yelled before the practice rocket hit him and everything went dark, he wasn't dead but he was out for the count.

BUCK

The five odst's were behind the rocks fighting off the elites when after Romeo's "defeat" Buck got very pissed and looked at Mickey.

"Mickey, what were you thinking? I told you to fire at the damn elite sniper, not our own!" Buck screamed.

"Gunny, I-. "Mickey was cut of when a Spartan laser training round pierced the elite sniper and locked its armor up.

"We have no time for this Buck, get your gun and fire if you want to win, and not be the laughing stock of the entire elite population." Dutch said while letting his laser cool down.

"Well… considering the schism in the covenant, it's not like their population is that big."

"SHUT UP MICKEY!" everyone found themselves yelling.

Buck looked straight at him and turned his attention to Mickey, he breathed slowly and picked up Mickey's rocket launcher and handed over to the fool.

"Aim and shoot." Buck said while getting his attention over towards the elites.

"Hmm seems they're getting fuel rod cannon out. Looks like we gotta beat them to the punch, Rookie, you and Mickey go around and figure out an attack while me, Faire, and Dutch attack them head on. Buck explained while getting the corner of the rock on his knees. Rookie and Mickey started walking towards the other side to get prepped. Buck and his small team looked out.

"Get the cannon ready, these imps are gonna fall." The leader ordered while watching for them.

The alien noticed him and ordered

"Get them." Very simply uttered.

Suddenly the elites started firing repeatedly at their cover and shot Buck.

"God damn it, that that hurts" Buck screamed.

ROOKIE

"Dutch, aim that laser to catch their attention." Rookie heard his CO order.

"Faire, try shooting with that pistol, close combat won't work right now." He continued while firing.

"Well Rookie looks like it's just you and me, got any good ideas." Mickey asked forcing Rookie to put his focus back on him.

"How many rockets do you have left?" Rookie asked.

"Well considering I accidentally killed Romeo, let's see… only two, and I would need to get closer" Mickey answered back.

"This sucks. Wait how about we use this" Rookie said walking over to Romeo's knocked out body and snagged his sniper rifle.

"I guess that could work. Are you good with those shots?" Mickey asked while looking at Romeo and turning.

"Let's find out." He answered while climbing into the tree with the rifle on his back Mickey followed him.

Rookie looked through the scope and saw the elites firing on his teammates.

He turned on his radio and asked "Any of you beaten yet?"

"I'm not but Buck got hit multiple times and was brought down, at least he took another one out" Anne answered back behind the rock.

"Help would be much appreciated; I don't know how long Dutch can stay up." She finished.

Rookie tried aiming but couldn't get a clear shot and he saw Dutch go down.

"Dutch is down, I repeat Dutch is down." Anne said into the radio.

"The three are going straight at me now!" She answered.

"Awe screw this, she needs help and I can't get this thing to work. Rookie said as he dropped the rifle and jumped out of the tree and leaving Mickey alone on a tree.

Anne was behind a rock firing at the elites with her shotgun; luckily she shot one just as Rookie made it to the rock.

MICKEY

Mickey watched the Elite behind fire three fuel rods straight towards him. It looked like a burning onslaught of green fire.

"Oh man" Mickey muttered while attempting to jump, but failed.

FAIRE

Faire immediately heard a tree catch on fire, and turned to see it was the one Mickey sat in.

"Sounds like Mickey's down" Faire said looking at Rookie.

She noticed Rookie looked back; the tree which Mickey was sitting at had burnt marks everywhere.

"Some training Op this turned out to be." He said while noticing the elites coming closer, he quickly reloaded his rifle.

"Do you have any grenades?"

Rookie sighed and answered

"No I used them up at the beginning, maybe we could check on the captain." Faire then looked to see that the Elites was what's between them and their captain.

" Guess not, Well it looks like we have no choice but to attack head on, these rocks won't protect us for long." Anne said while grabbing her gun and getting ready to depart the rock.

"Alright…" Rookie slowly eased to the side of the rocks, rifle in hand. Faire crouched down holding the shotgun steady.

"NOW!" the two jumped out of the rocks and made contact. The sanghelli elites started firing at them with fuel rods and plasma. The plasma rifled one hit Anne's knee and she fell to the other she and rookie then kept on firing the elite with a plasma rifle which went straight for her. It was about to get to her until suddenly the elite was knocked out by a well-timed assassination by rookie. He jumped onto the elite and beat it until it lost conciseness. Rookie got off the alien and fired towards Elite number two, which was a good couple meters away. Faire avoided them carefully, well aware that one hit could lose the game.

"Come on, let's regroup back at the rocks." Rookie said.

_Of course you want to regroup, considering how far we just got_

Faire shook her head.

"No, we need to keep pressing, that's just one elite." He slowly sighed.

"Alright…" HE fired his SMG towards the alien, trying to draw it's fire. Faire crouched down and focused her shotgun. The elite shot a fuel rod their direction, and Faire jumped out of the way, but it impacted Rookie, who cleanly fell to the ground.

"God damn it." She screamed to herself. She started firing the magnum only to see it was out of ammo. The elite tried to shoot another fuel rod but it seems the gun was empty. Instead the elite went to his side and pulled out a curved energy sword. She slowly drew out her shotgun, the Elite was six feet away from her walking slowly to possibly savor the moment. She slowly putted a couple shells into the gun, and pumped it. Seems she was the only one left. They were ina slight stalemate, the elite with the obvious edge, and her with the… shotgun. She slipped off her helmet and quickly engaged with a thrust of the gun. The elite dodged and slashed towards her, she blocked with the gun, luckily this was a practice sword, otherwise it would of cut right through. She fired into the Elite who immediately fell back. She quickly lunged towards it firing the gun again, but the elite slashed it out of his way, and kicked her down. Somehow the gun fell into the air and the elite caught it.

"Come on, do it." She slowly said, trying to antagonize it, this 'anticipation' was really getting to her. The elite lifted the energy sword and quickly thrusted towards her, but almost immediately the elite fell to the ground. Something impacted it's head. She quickly took her shotgun from it and fired into it for good measure. She looked to see where the shot came from, and then saw Mickey, up in the trees, all burnt, but holding a sniper rifle.

"Thanks Mick." She yelled out with a slight wave.

"Don't mention it" he yelled back while getting out of the tree. Suddenly the glass observation doors opened and elite and human medical officers came in to pick up the soldiers, maintenance officers also came in to clean up the room for the next op. Mickey dropped the sniper rifle and walked over to the door and walked through. She patted him on the back.

"Nice shot… didn't know you could snipe."

"Neither did I." Mickey said somewhat reluctantly.

She watched the officers pick up each of the knocked out soldiers and take them to med bay to heal the plasma burns. They picked up Rookie and Anne stayed close to her friend. The master chief walked beside her.

"Good work Lance corporal." He said, she nodded slowly.

"Good tenacity, try not to make yourself noticeable in the future." He said. She sighed,

_I am quite bold, aren't I?_

"Very well… sir." He then looked at the Arbiter, who stared him down. Seems some rivalries were going on. The Master Chief then turned to her.

"The missions in 6 days, I'll send a report in to your CO on ways each of you can improve." He said and slowly walked away, she felt the ground shake every step he took. She looked to Rookie, then slightly smiled… then realized something.

"I still don't know your name."

(Alright I've been busy with things, but I've also been working on part 2, and guess what? I've already got through about 5 chapters of writing it, so far, I feel it's pretty good, I might actually publish it when I reach ten. And it's a lot better written then the first ten chapters of part 1, each should be over 4000 words long.)


	6. Chapter 6

BUCK

Buck woke to see a few doctors and Dutch and Mickey in front of him. They were looking at him in a somewhat creepy manner.

"What happened?"

"Well Gunny, good to see you woke up, you've been out for six hours."

"What Happened" He once more demanded.

"Oh we won… I think."

"No Dutch we did win I told you"

"Look Mickey I'll believe we won but not under the idea that you actually used a sniper rifle."

"We actually won? I did not expect that." A voice emerged from Romeo Who sat in his cot yawning, "Oh and by the way Mickey, you're a team killing fucktard." He said while standing up.

"It's not my fault!"

"Damn looked like it."

"Can't we just get along?"

"Apparently not."

"Shut up, all of you." Buck yelled while leaving the cot.

"Bickering won't get you anywhere, so just don't talk!"

Buck seemed to always get pissed whenever his squad acted up like this, and he has a very short temper. After a few minutes of being quiet he cooled down, he walked towards one of the doctors to request a holo-tape of the training Op they went through. After obtaining a copy he thanked them and walked out the door with his squad still being quiet. One minute later,

"So what's his problem?" Mickey asked.

DARE

ONI agent Veronica Dare was working on her computer over mission specifics over the upcoming mission when Buck entered the room in his gear,

"So, have you found out more about our "mission"?"

She hardly noticed him until he asked, she shut the laptop and turned to face him.

"Well after hearing from the drone's we sent, the ark is well a lot like halo."

"Well what's halo like? I've never been there and intelligence never told me squat."

"Lets just say its like earth but with more temples, no humans, and no desert terrain, oh and halo's a giant fucking ring."

"Sound's nice, what have you learned about our mission?"

Dare opened up the computer again to check over mission specifics and answered:

"After the chief finds the location of the area the prophet is heading too, we as in This squad will link up with him and go on to fight the covenant and get to the control center to stop the prophet." She said darkly while turning back to him.

"You say that like you know the outcome."

"Buck, to tell you the truth… I'm scared out of my fucking mind."

"We are outnumbered greatly, have weaker technology and… yeah."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll-." Buck was cut off when sirens started off.

"Awe shit, what's going on?" He screamed.

Dare went straight back to the computer and looked at the news.

The intercom screamed "Code red we are under attack, prepare for assault!"

"Wait the Covenant know we are chasing they're cruisers and are sending one back through the portal to try and kill us"

"What do you think Buck" Dare stood up and ran to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To find the squad and make sure they don't pull anything stupid, also to find out what we can do."

She ran out the door and sprinted through the hallway with Buck behind her.

"Allright if I were any of the squad where would I be," she looked at Buck for a moment and realized.

"Right the cafeteria."

Her assumptions were right as she found herself in the cafeteria where there were soldiers freaking out, pigging out of just trying to get out. Her ODST squad was a mix of confused and pigging out. She approached him

"Captain what's going on?" Mickey asked.

"The covenant knew we were following them in the portal and the sent one of they're carriers after us-" the ship shook with spectacular force.

"Anyways, we need to get to the bridge, we can see if we can be of help, or atleast know what's going on."

"Sounds good to me." Rookie said while standing up.

"Lets move" Buck said as they traveled through the hallways. The bridge wasn't to far and eventually they walked into the room where the Arbiter, Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson and other UNSC officers were all discussing the course of action.

"I say we give them everything this baby's got and more" Johnson suggested.

"And what if what this _baby's _got isn't enough" the Arbiter replied.

"Well I say we ram em then" another officer said.

"That would kill us, maybe we should try and back off"

"That would make us even more dead!"

"WELL YOU KNOW WHAT MAYBE YOU SHOULD JUST SHUT UP."

"WELL SORRY BUDDY, I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM PUNKS LIKE YOU."

Around now the group was ranting insults to each other,

"STOP!" Dare yelled unaware everyone heard her.

"What do you think we should do, Captain Dare."

Dare thought to herself for five seconds and came up with a plan.

"What if we were to distract it, and then we send one of our drop pods into a safe area inside of it with soldiers, then they set some tactical nukes inside of it and then escape in one of its onboard ships?"

Johnson replied "That could work, but who would be crazy enough to get inside that thing and set the nukes"

Master Chief stood up and replied "I believe I'd be if that's all right?"

"Fine Chief, do you know how to get to its core?" Johnson Asked.

"I know my way around those ships, I'll be fine."

"So then we have a plan, we return fire and then send Master Chief into the ship, any more volenteers?"

"That's not necessary sir, I can take care of it alone."

"Fine by me Chief, just don't die in there, we're gonna need you on the ark." Johnson finished.

BUCK

Within the next hour the ship prepped its cannons, engineers were running down the hall in an orderly fashion and chief was getting settled into a drop pod with a nuke on his lap. The countdown started.

Buck approached the pod as it was getting into position and said

"Good luck sir"

The Spartan lifted his head towards him and answered:

"We make our own luck, remember that trooper." The pod shot off.

Buck returned to where his squad was stationed at, Mickey rose his head towards him.

"He sure knows how to make a disappearing act, I'll give him that."

"I'll give him five minute's at best" Romeo said while drinking from a canister.

"And how long would you last Romeo, five seconds?" Dutch replied snidely.

"Well he should know what he's doing, right? I've read about him he apparently killed an entire covenant armada, and fought down on earth before you guys got there." Anne said while reading a file.

"That's probably just UNSC propaganda Faire, anything get him recognized as one of the last Spartans." Romeo replied.

"Then why are you so concerned he's going to fail, because if that happens then we're fucked." Rookie said while examining a bullet.

"Because Rookie, unlike you idiots I gonna die not believing this UNSC bullshit."

THREE HOURS of RANTING LATER

"And furthermore we are up against impossible odds with no chance of survival and we give all that responsibility to a Spartan, that's craz-" The ship rumbled from a large blue explosion with a renegade covenant ship emitting out of the burst.

"Chief to command, I have successfully destroyed the carrier, I am now coming in for a landing" rolled from the speakers.

"Well well well, look who;s laughing now." Dutch said while eloquently drinking from his glass.

Romeo muttered to himself and walked out of the room.

"What a jackass" Dutch said while taking another sip.

"But he's _our_ jackass" Buck said while looking back.

"Is he always like that." Faire asked while setting her paper down.

"Yeah, you get use to it" Rookie answered. "He hit me with a his gun and continued to hate me." Rookie answered.

"He makes up being a douche, by being one our best snipers." Buck said while looking at his watch.

"Sorry guys but I need to see command, so meet up in here tomorrow." Buck left the room.

DUTCH

"So Dutch" Mickey started. "What do you know about Spartans."

"Back when I was in another ODST squad, we were put on an important mission to kill a prophet with a spartan's help. She saved my teammates ass twice and she died on the third time. And he was a dick the whole time, like Romeo, infact he to was a sniper." Dutch finished.

"So that would make sense why you defend chief." Faire supposed.

"That and I like to mess with him." Dutch boasted proudly.

Mickey rose up and walked away, signaling he's preparing for sleep.

"So… you two getting along well all buddy buddy eh?" Dutched asked to the remaining squad members Dare and Rookie. The duo blushed a shade of red looking at each other then away.

"You know what I'm tired, I'm heading to bed, see you around perv." Faire said while getting up.

"Oh me too" Rookie said while leaving his stool, And started walking out the room.

"With each other, they grow up so fast, seems like yesterday he crashed on earth."

They left the room and Dutch had the table to himself.

He could tell they were discussing him and they're problems.

"I better get to bed too."

And with that Dutch made his way back to his room, he slid the card in the door and walked in, it was a normal room but by his bedside he had a picture of a woman and a letter next to it. He read it over like he did many times before and then he got under the blankets to rest, awaiting the next day.

BUCK

"Is that all is there anything else, that you need to tell me, Sergeant Johnson"

"Well, lets see here." He said while looking through his files. "Ah here it is marine, it's a vitality record over those we lost on Luna by the covenant, here is a file concerning a Lance Corporal James Dante, get it to him.

"Sir yes sir." Buck saluted while Johnson walked into the hall.

I know its been a few months, I was busy with school work, and I've recently been playing mass effect 2. I'll try to update more often, thank you for the reviews.


	7. Chapter 7

ROOKIE

The alarm clock went off as Rookie watched Mickey once more tumble out of bed with a knot around his knees.

"God dang blanket, Rookie old buddy old pal, could you help a guy out?" Mickey insisted while realizing he can't move his arms.

"You know this is why we have helmets, so you don't hit you're head when tumbling out of bed." Rookie said while undoing the knot of blankets around Mickey's arms and legs.

"You know I think we've had this conversation over 12 times already. You ever get tired of it?" Mickey asked while standing up

"Do you ever get tired of being trapped in your bed with no women?" Rookie shot back while going through his drawer.

"Harsh man, so what are you up to?"

"None of you're business, I gotta go." Rookie answered while leaving the room to leave Mickey to his thoughts, Several minutes later.

"Sure is quiet around here… Let's see what Bucks up to!" Mickey sprinted towards the door to "check" on his captain and his endeavors.

ROMEO

Romeo returned to his table with a bowl of rice cereal and a glass of water, he took a seat next to Dutch who was already in the process of food consumption. Romeo started to eat and keep quiet for a few minutes until Dutch decided to start some conversation.

"You seem better, what happened found your long lost porno collection?"

"Shut up, how'd you sleep?"

Dutch cricked his neck to the left and it gave out a large cracking sound, he then did this process in the other direction.

"Good I guess, those beds are so damn stiff; I can't wait to get my leave once this is over."

"You gonna visit Gretchen, I heard she's doing well?"

"Yeah, that's my plan anyways; she's making a good recovery. What are you gonna do with you're time?"

Romeo took a large spoonful of rice into his mouth and swallowed, he then answered.

"Haven't figured that out yet, maybe I'll visit Castra and see an old friend." Romeo answered deviously.

"Good luck with that Kojo." Dutch laughed with a spoon in his mouth.

"Wont need it, it's in the bag." Romeo grinned while standing up.

"Right, so have you gotten over last night, you seemed pretty pissed?" Dutch asked while pointing his spoon.

"I'll live, as long as the Spartan doesn't die the moment we touch down. Now about that-

Buck was marching down into the cafeteria with Mickey following in from behind.

"Mickey, if I've told you once I've told you again, you are not allowed into my room period, unless it's an emergency."

"But Gunny I thought you."

"Shut up and get your cereal." Buck ordered as Mickey ran off into the line.

Buck proceded to sit on the bench and open up a small bag of cereal.

"What's with you gunny?" Romeo asked while taking another bite.

"What do you think? He headed into my room and started going through my stuff... again." Buck answered.

"Hey it could be worse he could of took a look-see in you're room when you have "company" in again." Dutch suggested.

"Or he could wander in with rookie and they can put in a team effort, not to mention if they bring Fare along for the ride, they could easily become the most annoying marines ever." Romeo added.

"I get your point, it just annoys me that Mickey has nothing better to do, it's just annoy Buck everyday."

"Well here's something you could do Ed, see master chief in the line." Dutch said while pointing at the super-soldier. "Maybe you could get Mickey to annoy him instead of you"

"That just might work." The three ODST's started to discuss their plan of attack.

"Here he comes, act natural"

Mickey walked to the table and sat down on the seat with cereal.

"Hey guys what's going on?" Mickey asked while picking up a spoon.

"Oh nothing much, we were just wondering what its like to be a Spartan." Dutch explained.

"Well not me, I just think it's stupid, and dumb, and stupid." Romeo said while looking away.

"Well you know I could go ahead and ask him." Mickey suggested.

"Oh could you? That would be great."

"I'll go ask him." Mickey said as he started walking towards the unexpecting Spartan.

"That takes away one problem." Buck said laughing.

"Good work staying in character Romeo." Dutch said while laughing as well.

"No problem guys" Romeo said while laughing his brains out.

"So how long till he stops bothering the chief." Buck asked while watching the chief answer complicated questions.

I'll give him four days, twelve tops." Romeo answered.

After five minutes of eating Buck took out a piece of paper with writing on it and started to read it to himself.

"Gunny what's that?" Dutch asked referring to the paper.

"Can't tell you, it concerns Rookie." Buck answered while folding the paper.

"Come on we're on the squad too, we're like a family." Romeo said pleading.

"What would that make you?" Dutch asked.

"That's easy the abusive uncle of course, you're the Uncle that loves life, Bucks the loser father with no control of his children, Dare's the mom having her periods. Mickey's the toddler, Fare is that feisty teenage daughter, and I'm not sure what Rookie is." Romeo explained.

"Right, that sorta makes sense but I'm still not showing you." Buck said confused

"Could you give us a hint or something Gunny?" Dutch asked after drinking.

"The only thing I can tell you is this might make him seem like the angsty teenager."

eight hours later when the ODST squads meet up separately

FAIRE

"Good to see you all squad, as you all know we have an important mission ahead of us in four days." Buck started off. "This day will be remembered in all history as the day the covenant gets its ass kicked, or that's what the commanders' claim." He continued. "As you know when chief finds the silent cartographer thing. This squad will be deployed to help escort him to the proper shield generators. There are thousands on the ark from what the monitor has told us so that's why we need the cartographer first. After we disable the shield generators, the barrier will fall and we will get some reinforcements, we then continue into the ark's control center to kill the prophet, and stop the rings from engaging and killing all of us." Buck explained flawlessly.

"Not to mention with Truth dead the covenant will fall into turmoil we can then finish this war!" Dare said while standing up. The remaining five ODSTs besides Romeo cheered, and Buck clapped. "Now before we get to the celebration, lets talk strategy" Buck said whle taking out a pamphlet.

"Lets see here. One Marines and any weapon is you're friend, 2 the Elites are _now _your friends. 3 the covenant isn't you're friend, 4 brute chieftains and scarabs aren't your- god never mind about this, guys practice your techniques as long as it involves killing the covenant, otherwise it's not worth it. And yeah that's about all this pamphlet says for fifty pages, meeting adjourned everyone can leave except for rookie.

Faire remained in her seat waiting for Rookie and Buck to finish. The only ones left in the room are her and Dare.

"So how have you been, getting accustomed to the squad?" Dare asked while facing her.

"I guess, Buck is easy to piss off, Mickey's a bit of an idiot, Romeo's perverted, Dutch is annoying and well Rookie's nice."

"I understand Romeo, Mickey was always that stupid along with Buck's temper, but how is Dutch annoying?

"He's just always seems to claim that there's something between me and Rookie, its irritating." Faire asked.

"Is there something, Dutch is keen for detail." Dare asked.

"Well I like Rookie a lot but I just don't want things to go so fast, I could really hurt him."

"I wouldn't really call three days to fast, look at me and Buck for example, it took us half a day to start kissing, of course that was because of a blast from a grenade but still, and I heard Dutch and Gretchen had known each other for two days until a spark started."

"So what you're saying is ODSTs are known to have short successful love lives.

"No, what I'm saying is give him a chance, I've seen the way you look at him and I've heard squad mention it once, you might want to tell him, before you lost that chance." Dare explained sincerely.

"Thanks captain but what if you're wrong."

"Then you'll at least know Anne."

"Alright Thanks, so how are you and Buck doing recently?" Faire asked changing the subject.

"Great actually, we're working it out very well."

"That's good." Faire answered

ROOKIE

Rookie entered the side room of the meeting place and sat down on a metallic desk.

"You needed to see me sir." Rookie asked.

Rookie you can call me Buck, We're friends right?"

"I suppose, so what is this about the mission or something?"

"No, but lets just get to the point, I got a report from sergeant Johnson over the casualties of people we lost on Luna, it states that John and Ellen Dante were murdered by the covenant."

"Rookie, You're parents are dead,"


	8. Chapter 8

BUCK

Rookie was silent, Buck notices the twitching in his eyes, he wasn't going to cry, he wasn't the type, but he knew this bothered him. Buck frankly didn't know what to do, he had only known this man for perhaps a month. He stood up looking close to the door, and then turned back to James, he placed his hand on his shoulder, and gave a re-affirming pat. He then approached the door and gave the knob a gentle twist.

"I'm sorry James, really." And Buck left the room.

ROOKIE

When Buck left the room, James sat there for a moment, this was hard to believe, his father was never interested in the war, neither his mother, infact they worked hard to shelter him from it… and now hearing this… it was unreal, it wasn't fair. But this war was anything but fair. He remembered the last time he saw them.

_Five Years Ago_

James Dante was approaching his home on Luna, in Crisium city, he graduated high school three months ago. He would be sent to the college on Luna to take a course in Advanced AI behavior, his parents John and Ellen were professors at the college, so of course he would go to the college on Luna due to an employee discount and so they could keep an eye on him. He however had a different idea I mind, and he was planning to discuss it with his parents.

He walked into the living room, his father, John, sat on a reclined armchair, reading from one of the new holopapers from that day, July 6th. James looked at his father, trying to find the words, it was hard to articulate what he was saying because frankly, he had a feeling he knew the answer. His father was a tall man, whom wore thick rimmed glasses. James was about to ask the question when his father interrupted him.

"James do you know that currently Scientists are working on a prototype AI that will last ten years instead of seven without going rampant?" James stared at the man, he knew where this was going, a ten year long AI? It was impossible, making it last longer would slow it down. At least that's from what he understood at a summer seminar at the college.

"When you're through with college I bet you'll make one that runs twice as long." His father said proudly. James looked down, using the damn guilt trip to stop him… without even knowing it.

"Dad about that…" James was trying to find the right words.

Footsteps came from the basement as a woman with chocolate brown hair walked into the room with a large stack of holovids. It was ina random mix order, he recognized them as some of his parents' teaching tools.

"Hey James could you help me out with this?" His mother asked while trying to keep the stack balanced. James grabbed half of the stack out his mother's hands and set them next to a stack of papers on the wooden table.

"Thanks son… your father was pestering me to bring these up, to watch them together." She said grinning, his father smirked, staring at her. Part of how they got along so well together.

"Mom about that, there's something I want to ask you guys." His mother sat down, looking at him.

"What is it son?" his father asked while putting down his 'paper'.

James felt a stinging sensation in his body, it was hard to breath. He gulped and within thirty seconds, slowly said.

"I want to enlist… in the… UNSC."

His father's gaze widened, while his mother's was filled with shock. James couldn't look them in the eyes.

"Why would you want to join the army?" His father asked.

"There's more I can do in this war then to sit behind a lab bench typing a report. James answered. His mother was silent, and so his father responded.

"James… these are aliens… this is not our war, it's the governments…" James shook his ehad.

"No… it's ours, if the UNSC fails, they'll destroy all of us… haven't you heard what they do… they… they glass planets…" His mother didn't respond, his father looked down, and slowly set his glasses aside, on a nearby bench.

"And so… you want to do your part, to save us all? Are you hearing yourself right now?" His father asked, James looked up.

"Dad… so everyone that's died for humanity… that's all for nothing?" His father shook his head.

"James… these people, they fight for honor… but it's common knowledge, that honor is of no importance to the dead…" 

"So you thing I'm going to die?" James immediately asked, feeling a certain fire in his own eyes. The man's glare met his own.

"Yes… I do, these aliens, like you said, they glass planets, and I don't think."

"It's not up to you to decide if the covenant wins… it's up to all of us."

"And just you will make that difference? When the choice cmes, will you make the decision that counts? I doubt that…" James swallowed, he looked around the room, his mother couldn't respond, she instead studied her hand, more importantly her ring.

"It doesn't matter if I get that choice… what matters is that I make sure the choice is actually given."

"They'll kill you."

all for nothing."...oked up.

ave us all? are et his glasses aside, ona nearby when his father interupted a fe"And if we don't do anything they'll find Luna, and then blow it sky-high… you along with it!" James yelled. His father looked down, and then yelled back.

"You're not going into the military and that's final!" James froze, he got shoot down, they weren't going to support him on this. He stared down, and then at his parents.

"I… I'm going to my room." James answered defeated.

He never could win a conversation with his father; he just didn't have the spark his dad has. James walked up the stairs, feeling a sort of thump with every step he took, he entered his room.. It was a small sized room but James made do with it. He laid down on his bed to think, on his right was a night stand, with a photo of him and his parents, it was taken at graduation months ago, he angrily kicked it. The frame fell and the glass cracked. HE could now see a splinter between the three people in the frame. He lowered his hand down and picked it back up, he looked at it for a moment, and then slowly placed it back on the bed stand. HE found himself standing up.

He walked over to his computer and sat down in the chair near it. James powered it up and decided to search the holonet. He usually did this when he had nothing to do and James usually thought about many different subjects. After several hours of searching he found nothing that piqued his curiosity. Until he saw a link to a UNSC conspiracy website, on the front page, it had a video titled "Covenant Harvest Attack" he clicked on it, James watched massive purple ships circling around the planet harvest, a planet the UNSC lost at the beginning of the war, and then took back, it was glassed though.. He watched in horror as the surface of the planet burned, that was a farm world, and it was destroyed. He sat up and closed his computer.

"So we're fucked huh" James said to himself. HE sighed, and then opened his computer again, it was back on his homepage.

He looked at one of the advertisement on the screen for the UNSC. It read "Enlist in The UNSC, flight out of Luna July 7th 12:00 am. Sharp. He felt his breath stagger.

_Maybe I.. could make that difference… make that choice… the choice my father would never let me make._

HE stood up, knowing what he had to do. He looked at the time on his computer, it read 11:37 PM, july the 7th was in 23 minutes. He breathed in once more and then grabbed a duffel bag on his dresser and opened it, he quickly started putting items in it, his computer, his ID, a couple changes of clothes, money, medical report, he was about to close it up when he looked at the picture on his bed stand, cracked… he slowly picked it up and stared at it for a moment, it was a nice picture. HE sighed and didn't move it, he closed his bag and slowly made his way downstairs, he entered the living room to find it empty, but the holovids that were stacked up on the table fell over… did his parents have a fight? He looked at his watch; he had maybe 15 minutes left. He slowly stepped around the floor, trying not to make a noise. He made his way to the doorway.

His mother was standing there, surprisingly not angry, in-fact she had tears in her eyes. She embraced James in a warm hug. This shocked him, his parents weren't much to express emotion, they were college teachers for Pete sake. He felt a slight tear in his eye, he held his mother for a moment.

"Make us proud, James." The mother and son broke away, she handed him an object, a small wooden box, and closed his hands on it. He didn't know what it was, he looked at his mother for a moment, he knew she didn't like this, but she took what she could. He sighed and then said.

"Could please not tell dad about this, mom?" She slowly smiled, not a prideful one, but a hopeful one, she nodded.

"As far as he's concerned he'll think you ran away. I love you, son, take care of yourself." His mother said, looking down, tears crawled down her cheeks.

"Goodbye mom, I'll do my best." And with that James left the house, not knowing he would never see his parents again.

"I know you will…"

_Present Time_

James felt a hot string of tears fall from his eyes, he shouldn't of left, he shouldn't… He stared at the letter, and looked at a nearby holonote accompanied with it. The ONI insignia was inscribed on it.

_Dear James Dante_

We are sad to announce you're parents John and Ellen Dante did not survive the attack on Luna by the Covenant, therefore we have transferred the credits in they're accounts to you, you will also gain ownership of their property since they specified it in their wills. The building was examined and we have found these a photograph of you and your family and a letter that unusually survived that was addressed to you, we did not read it. We are sorry for your loss.

The Office of Naval Intelligence

Rookie looked inside the envelope and found a scorched picture, it was the same picture that was taken for his high school graduation. He saw the glint in his mother's smile and the fire in his father's eyes. He picked up the scorched letter and opened it. He could tell it was in his father's handwriting.

_Dear James_

_Ellen just told me what really happened that night, I'm shocked but not surprised, but that's not the point. I just want to say I'm sorry, this was all my fault, I shouldn't have tried to control your life… I have a couple students who entered the military and they told me they'd keep in touch, and tell me if they hear from you, hell I even subscribed to the weekly military newspaper… but I know it won't bring you back… your mother misses you dearly… I wanted to say another thing too… that I'm proud of you son. I wish I could tell you in person but I can't. and now I know you'll make it far in the military, my father was a military man, and I know it's in your blood… Give the covenant hell, and no matter what we'll always be there for you son._

_Love, John Dante… Dad_

James sat there, staring at the letter. It wasn't enough, he would never have closure with his parents… and it was all his fault. He slowly put the photo and the letter away, and sat back, feeling the tears slowly subside. HE heard the door start to open.

FAIRE

Anne walked into the room The Rookie sat in the chair, his head was in his hands, and his hair looked sweaty and worn. She breathed, looking for something to say.

"Rookie what happened?" he turned around slowly, his breathing was slightly erratic, he handed her a letter titled _"Dear James Dante"_

She read it carefully and realized that Rookie's parents were dead… and that his name was James.

"Oh my gods, James I am so sorry…" She said. he slowly stood up out of his chair he couldn't let this get to him, instead, Faire put her hand on his shoulder.

"This is what Buck talked to you about?" She asked, James slowly nodded, his steely blue eyes looking down, she slowly wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. He was unfamiliar to this type of intimate contact but he wrapped his arms around her waist. They continued this for a moment until James slowly let go, somewhat awkwardly.

"You want to talk about it, Rookie?" Anne asked. They walked out of the room, and out of the briefing room.

"Sure" Rookie said as they started to walk towards they're rooms. Rookie began telling her more about the relationship between him and his parents, as well as how he came to enlist in the UNSC.

MICKEY

Mickey was in his room playing with an old paddleball racket he found in his stuff. A few years ago he tangled it up and since then he's been trying to fix it since.

"C'mon, just a little more. Gotcha!" Mickey exclaimed as he finally fixed his toy. The red rubber ball swayed freely for the first time in years.

Mickey then started hitting the ball with the racket, smug it worked started banging the ball against the wooden paddle, after about three minutes he heard something outside the room.

"Thanks Anne…" Mickey could here whispering but couldn't make out the words.

"See you in the morning."

Mickey heard the doorknob open and Rookie walked into the room. Mickey started playing with his paddleball, intent on not paying attention.

"So what did Captain have to tell you?" Michael asked without making direct eye contact.

"Why do you care?" Rookie asked in response obviously in a sad mood.

"Dude, we're friends, tell me what's going on."

"My… my parents died Luna attack." Rookie answered simply. Mickey froze, Rookie's parents, he never really talked them, and he didn't really have much to say on that subject.

"Dang, sorry Rookie… I mean it." Mickey said in respect. He sighed, looking away.

"It's alright, I guess, the thing is the last time I saw them was before I enlisted." He said, sighing. HE seemed quite glum.

"Sounds like you got the better end of the stick then me, my parents were terrorists… I never saw them… ever." Mickey said.

"And I guess that makes you they're little evil demon spawn." Rookie joked.

"Yeah, I guess it does." Mickey answered while starting to laugh with his best friend.

"So was that Faire outside the door?" Mickey asked curious.

"Yeah, she's a good friend" Rookie said with a slight smile.

"Just a friend?" Mickey asked for the thousandth time.

"Anyways I think I better get to bed. Are you too occupied with that paddleball?" Rookie asked changing the subject.

"Now that you mention it, I'm beat. G'night Rookie." Mickey said while setting the paddle ball down and crawling into his cot. His roommate did the same.

"Now we have just a few more days to go, then the covenant will pay for what they did."

_(Alright, I don't really have plans to reupdate the rest of the chapters besides this because they aren't too bad, I might do them but I'm busy working on the new continuation, which I am proud to say I am already on the eighth chapter, and it's going well, I'd like to say it's far deeper than this half of the story and more detailed, but I also create a bit of my own stuff in the story, such as the forerunner city I invent later in this fanfic,it will be like a city, except empty and different design stuff, just so you know. Also each chapter will be atleast over 4000 words long, the fifth chapter is about 9000 words, it's gonna be good. And I'd like to thank my supporters from years ago, and till now. It's going well. I hope to publish part two later, maybe in a couple months when I feel I have typed up enough material.) _


	9. Chapter 9

Over the next few days Rookie and Faire grew closer, Buck and Dare was getting more and more adhesive over they're mission. Dutch was writing more letters to send to Gretchen, Romeo was again having a fit about Spartans. And Mickey of course was bothering the master chief to point of obsession. They performed another training op against the elites with little success. The ONI was starting to question how to integrate the shangheli within the UNSC successfully, as the day grew nearer where they would go on one of the greatest UNSC operations ever attempted, but in order for it to be successful they needed luck, accuracy, and teamwork.

ROOKIE

Rookie was waiting in the pod room from where they drop; Buck, Dutch, and Romeo were assigned to touch down on the master chief's transport, while He, Faire, and Mickey would use the drop pods to get to the ark. His commanding officer, Faire tried to get assigned to groundwork on the Ark, but was assigned by Oni to be put on a com link with him and the others.

Rookie watched as the door opened and other ODSTs walked in to put they're gear on and get set in they're pods. Rookie tapped his foot in a rhythm and looked around; there were two empty pods, one at each side of his pod. In his hands he held a small wooden box; Rookie opened it from time to time to see the plain silver gleaming ring resting in it, He supposed it was an old heirloom. He continued to look at it, and thought of his dead parents

"I'll make you guys proud." He muttered to himself.

Rookie's orders were clear, he was to set down on the Ark with Mickey and Faire and then regroup with the master chief and his squad. Dare would keep an open channel with them the whole time.

Anna Faire and Michael Crespo walked into the room discussing the Halo rings.

"Yeah, chief told me it was some sort of weapon built by an ancient advanced race, but I dunno. It seems kinda fishy, how could ancient race be advanced and then suddenly disappear.

"Well if you read the UNSC handouts, they were losing to the flood and activated the Rings to kill all life in the galaxy." Faire answered.

"What handouts, what the heck's the flood?"

"Exactly." She answered smugly.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Rookie greeted while standing up.

"Rookie, you ready to kill some Coveys" Mickey asked while standing at his pod putting his torso armor on.

"More or less." Rookie answered.

"Whatever," Mickey said while picking up a rocket launcher and SMG and putting them in his slot. Faire did the same inserting a shotgun and magnum into her slot on rookie's right.

The intercom alarmed "DROP IN 3 MINUTES, REPEAT DROP IN 3 MINUTES!"

"Well, see you guys down there." Mickey said while getting set in his pod. Rookie was about to do the same but Faire stopped him.

"James, just be careful when we're down there." Anne said sincerely looking strait in his eyes.

"Anne, I'll be fine doing worry about it. If anything you should be worrying about Mickey." Rookie joked.

"Hey he's not that bad" Then Anne noticed Mickey making sounds in his chair.

"Well maybe he is." Anne said laughing.

"What could happen, I'll be careful, I promise no matter what." Rookie said sincerely, while starting to notice Anne getting closer, her face was nearly five centimeters away from his.

"I… I just don't wanna lose you, you're really important to me." Anne whispered.

"Anne-" before Rookie could continue she closed the gap between them in a brief but satisfying kiss. (_I figured this would be the best moment for the romance to go further.) _

Rookie didn't say anything and looked straight at Anne smiling and was about to ask her something when suddenly

"DROP IN 30 SECONDS, REPEAT DROP IN THIRTY SECONDS!" erupted from the intercom.

Rookie turned away and sat in his pod's chair. Anne then walked towards her pod and then said to Rookie, "Remember, when you make a girl a promise… you keep it."

Anne then sat in her chair and left Rookie to his thoughts. (_I had to have her say it.) _

The timer on Rookie's counter went to zero as he put his helmet on.

"Troopers when you all touch down, I need you to track down you're squad members and then follow in the joint attack on the control station, we've just got word of its location from Johnson. We are transmitting a map we compile of the ark to you're visors now. Remember it is not exact; it's what we got from our cameras, so trod carefully. Rookie saw the map on his visor spring up.

"Drop on my mark, Three, Two, One, MARK." The ODST captain yelled as the pods fell from the ship, for the first time Rookie saw the ark, an impressive structure in space. His comm. Chanel opened up with Dare, Mickey and Faire.

"Now we're talking." Mickey said amazed.

"Whoa, never anything like that, hell I still can't believe it." Faire said shocked.

"We'll believe it, trooper." Dare said through the static.

"Let's just hope we survive to see its glory." Rookie said shocked.

_Well, Rookie's gonna get a taste of the ark, along with his squad. It'll be pretty nice. I recently beat Halo reach and hope Microsoft doesn't screw the franchise now that bungies gone. This is a pretty short chapter but at least I finally got to it. If you guys have any ideas to improve this chapter, please let me know, it'll really help._


	10. Chapter 10 HALO

HALO: 3 ODST: 2

ROOKIE

EXACTLY AT DROP

"Ahhhghghggghhhhhh!" Rookie yelled, his drop pod fell at an alarming speed, his timer said he would touch down in exactly two minutes.

'I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!' Rookie thought to himself, he has only been on a few drops, and this one was the most frightening, he looked up and saw covenant ships battling UNSC Cruisers. They were holding up surprisingly well, considering the UNSC's track record against the Covenant in space combat. Suddenly Dare spoke up on the comm Channel.

"Impact in three… two… one…" Suddenly Rookie felt a huge slam, and everything went dark.

FAIRE

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DROP

Anna Faire's pod hit the ground hard, it was her first drop, and suprising to her… it didn't kill her like in the stories she heard about ODST's dying on impact, or burning to death while entering the atmosphere. She activated the latches and opened the pod, she found trouble to stand up, Faire looked around. Her pod landed in a grassy plains area, there were tree's around, and some looked extremely old and brittle, while others were just dead.

Faire turned on her Comm unit inside of her helmet

Dare spoke up on her comm Channel

"Lance Coporal Faire… do you copy?" Dare asked.

"Yes mam, I hear you loud and clear." Faire spoke into her comm.

"Private Crespo, do you copy?" She asked into the comm.

"… Jeez that was a hit, yeah sure, I copy." Mickey said. Clearly at that moment exiting the pod, as she heard something trip and complain.

"Excellent, Lance Corporal Dante, do you copy?" She asked, There was silence.

"I repeat, Lance Corporal Dante. Do you copy?" Dare asked once more.

"Oh dear." Anne said to herself.

ROOKIE

THREE MINUTES AFTER DROP

Rookie woke up from his sleep; he had a major headache and feels the need to vomit. He tried to compose himself, Rookie opened his latch, right in front of him. His pod was on teetering on the edge of a cliff, the height looked like one hundred stories, A drop that would kill him. Including that at the bottom of the cliff looked like a large pool of water… with sharp rocks.

Rookie could feel his pod moving, if he fell into the water he would probably die due to the heavy gear he was wearing, and the fact that he was still latched into the heavy ODST pod… which was teetering on the edge about to fall. Rookie then quickly undid the strap on him and threw his weapons out behind the pod. He prepared to climb on top of the pod and get out of this predicament. When he got on top of it, the pod finally flipped off of the edge and fell down, and Rookie jumped and caught the ledge, but he could feel himself slipping, Rookie was hanging on for dear life, finally he found traction and used it to pull himself up. He watched as his pod fell into the watery abyss.

"Jesus." Rookie said out loud. He then turned on his communication gear in his helmet.

Dare spoke up in it annoyed.

"Alright for the last time, Rookie… Are you there!" Dare roared.

"Jeez yes, what do you want to take my ears off?" Rookie asked.

"No, Mickey demanded we keep trying until we reach you, Isn't that right, Michael?" Dare asked.

"Yes mom." Mickey said, sadly.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Rookie asked.

"You three are spread a mile apart from each other, regroup and you will then receive further orders." Dare said.

"If you cannot locate each other, find the local Marines and assist them. The Covenant is putting up quite a fight." Dare said.

"Wonderful, How are the others?" Rookie asked.

"They made it intact, they are currently working with the chief.

DUTCH

AT LANDING

Dutch sat in the Pelican, next to Master Chief and other ODST's, including Buck and Romeo. He looked down and saw Covenant troops firing on their pelican. The warthog linked to the Pelican fell off. One of the other pelican's shook and lost control, it fell out into the ocean. The pilot seemed to have trouble and had to land, Buck sighed.

"Brace yourselves; we're going in a little hot!" he yelled. They landed, Romeo shook from the sudden landing. They all checked they're equipment.

Dutch looked at the Chief, he was busy pulling out a Spartan Laser.

"Why do you get the big toys?" He asked Chief just stared at him then got off the ship; Dutch sighed and loaded a Battle Rifle. They quickly got out of the ship and started firing on the hostiles. Back immediately threw a grenade at a turret, it exploded and fell apart, as well as destroying the Grunt inside of it.

"Yeah!" Buck yelled.

"Don't get cocky, captain." Dutch yelled firing on a brute. Buck sighed and kept firing. The grunts met back with equal determination to murder them.

(Woah, it's been so long since I've updated, I was busy with school and just plain forgot, I was about half done with this chapter, then had to deal with other things, I can't believe they just announced Halo4, that got me excited.)


	11. Chapter 11

THE ROOKIE

TWENTY MINUTES AFTER DROP

Halo did seem rather… earth like; James took a couple steps and then sighed.

"It's hard to believe the covenant worships this place." His orders were clear, hook up with local marines. He stepped towards a downed banshee.

_Looks like I found a clue… must of given them hell._

The banshee was disabled by a rocket launcher, which means the marines must be close by if they have to carry that tech around. He looked around the area; it seemed to be a ravine that went straight through. He paced around the water clutching his M7S. After a moment he then heard something, buzzing… wait.

"Drones!" a marine yelled. James breathed heavily and got behind cover. Plasma fire was going off rapidly, so he would think about ten drones… but where were the marines? He looked down and saw a couple grouped in the hills.

ROMEO

10 MINUTES AFTER LANDING

Romeo sat back sighing, he immediately reloaded a new clip. Chief had instructed them to stay back while he took out the AA Wraith. Romeo was mildly pissed off, but Dutch had him under control.

"Remind me why we're back here?" he asked.

"Can it Romeo." Buck said annoyed, these two never saw eye to eye on most issues. Dutch fired towards another grunt, and then a brute. The other marines Stacker and Reynolds fired towards the plasma turret across from they're position.

_I hate this shit._ Romeo fired towards the turret and it exploded, killing its operator. Buck watched the area, he nodded.

"Chief, the area's clear." He said and immediately Romeo heard the sound of a wraith being disabled. He sighed and the group hurried over to the other side. Buck breathed and then spoke on the COM.

"Beachhead secure, Commander. Hostile Anti-Air has been neutralized."

'Barely.' Romeo whispered intently, Buck flicked him on the helmet.

"Hold position. I'm on my way. Shipmaster, begin diversionary bombardment." Commander Keyes immediately said.

"I will beat the Prophet's shield like a drum. By the time the barrier falls, he will beg for mercy." An Elite's voice immediately answered her.

_Great, a proud Elite, I can see them stabbing us in the back, real soon_

Romeo looked up and saw a Pelican landing nearby, he groaned again. A Warthog and mongoose lowered out of it, including more Marines.

_Wonderful, a warthog, aiming's gonna be a bitch._ Buck looked at the Spartan.

"You drive chief, I'll gun." He said, the Master chief nodded and got into the warthog driver seat. Buck then looked to Dutch.

"I think we'll need a good wingman." He said, Dutch chuckled and got into the vehicle. Romeo groaned.

"What about me?" Buck looked back.

"Either you take the mongoose, or you secure the LZ for more forces." He said. Romeo looked at the mongoose… no protection…

"I'll take the latter." He said.

"Suite yourself." Buck said over the com, He was out of site with the Spartan.

_Alone again, this is the best day ever._

He then heard Dare message him over the COM

"So you're securing the LZ?" her voice asked. He sighed then answered back.

"Yeah, got any recommendations?" There were probably going to be more Covenant, and that meant he needed more than just a couple Marines.

"A few, yes."

FAIRE

30 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Lance Corporal Faire Looked around the area, it was all grassland and forest, not what she anticipated.

"Lance Corporal, you are trained in close range and hand-to-hand combat right?" Dare's voice asked over the COM.

"Yes, got something you need killed? Because I reckon I'm the most qualified." She said.

"Good, there are some Covenant forces north of you; I think the Elites might need a little assistance with them. Faire sighed.

"Alright, put it on my waypoint." She answered back and saw it added, the forces were about 800 meters north.

"Thanks." She said and started placing ammo in her M90. It wasn't that she disliked sniping; it's just using a shotgun felt more personal… in a dark covenant hating way. She paced quickly through the forest and got about 200 Meters from the target area. She saw Elites pinned down by jackals. Covenant Snipers… no grunts were there, but there was a wraith being piloted by some brutes, they kept firing towards the elites in cover.

_They're playing god-damn chicken._

"Mam, I thought you needed someone with hand-to-hand combat and close range experience?" She asked on the COM. Dare answered.

"Yes, that's exactly what I need, you see the wraith? Take it over." Dare's cold voice immediately ordered, Faire swallowed.

"Affirmative mam." She said. She sighed, and then saw a plasma pistol nearby in the grass.

_One Marines and any weapon is you're friend._

Anne picked it up in her left hand and slowly walked towards the wraith.

_This is crazy._

The Brute's motion trackers wouldn't register her as long as she was slow and precise. She slowly held down the plasma pistol's trigger, a green super-heated blob of plasma appeared on the end. She released and immediately stopped the Wraith. The brute immediately got out of his seat to who did this. She hid behind the Wraith and prepared her silenced pistol the M6S. Faire immediately fired the plasma pistol again going through the alien's shields and then fired the magnum. The brute fell to the ground in the blink of an eye. The gunner rushed towards her in frenzy, she quickly got out of the way and immediately grabbed his fallen comrade's grenades, and stuck him.

"What? NO!" he exploded in a blue light, and Faire sighed. She sighed and got inside the Covenant tank. Good thing she's been trained to drive this thing. It turned towards the snipers and a large blob of plasma shot out and got them. The elites immediately got out of cover and rushed towards the snipers, the leader held a carbine and seemed to eb an excellent sniper himself. Once they dealt with the jackals they turned towards the wraith, Anne stepped out of it and slowly jumped to the ground.

"A human?" one of them asked, she sighed.

"I'm Lance Corporal Faire, I've been told to assist you with the snipers." She said. Among the elites was the one from the training op, the 'Arbiter' he was the one with the carbine.

"Very good human, we better get into the tower." He said. Faire sighed.

"Objective complete." She said over her C OM.

"Good, hmm… stick with the elites, I doubt you're going to find the others any time soon." She said.

"You got it." She said, and then looked towards the Elites heading into the tower.

"Hey, wait up." She hurried towards the tower gripping the pistol and Plasma pistol in both hands, they were sure to be useful. She then heard… humming? She turned around and saw some sort of… robot? It must have been with the elites. It was a metal sphere with a blue eye in the middle

"Who are you?" she asked, the robot stopped immediately.

"I am 343 guilty spark, human." He said. The arbiter turned towards him while the Elites continued on.

"Oracle, you must keep pace with us." He said. The robot nodded.

"Very well." It answered, Faire followed it somewhat interested.

"What are you?" she asked.

"I am… was the monitor of installation 04." It said sadly as she walked by it.

"You mean the first halo ring. What happened there?" She asked just trying to keep up a conversation.

"My installation was destroyed… well we must hurry." It said trying not to reflect on the topic. She nodded. They continued into the room while she chatted with the monitor. She wasn't usually this nosey, but it was better than talking to an elite.

"You don't want to talk about it?" The monitor groaned.

"My installation was destroyed because of one of your own, and now I must assist you because protocol demands it." He said in a low voice, she sighed.

"I see… if it were me, I'd get even." She said. The monitor slowly nodded.

"Yes… yes… Reclaimer." It said, in a somewhat brighter mood. She nodded and then saw the Elites at the door. The arbiter looked at her.

"You were sent by Keyes?' he asked. She shrugged.

"I got orders to assist you." She said. The arbiter nodded.

"Very well, but do not get in their way, they're not too… trusting of your kind." He said looking towards the other elites, she nodded.

"Well, vice versa considering you all committed genocide on my people." She said. The Elite sighed.

"Very well, human." The Arbiter answered.

ROOKIE

THIRTY MINUTES AFTER DROP

Rookie fired towards the drones, there were easily twenty more. Drones weren't too hard, but they swarmed and got difficult to aim at. And it seemed they didn't care too much about desecrating this 'holy relic' He immediately fired towards three with accuracy; the drones were hit and dropped. The forces on the other side knew he was there. They all fired assault rifles towards the buggers and seemed cautious not to waste ammo. After five minutes the drones were finally all down, Rookie looked around and hurried towards the hill. He looked at the group, all mostly Marines, a couple ODSTs; they were well equipped with plenty of ammo, a group he should stay with for the time being. Among them was Sergeant Johnson.

(Been awhile, I couldn't sleep and decided to write this up, basically the story is going to follow Rookie travelling with Johnson's team, Faire with the elites and 343 guilty spark, Romeo covering the LZ, and Dutch and Buck with the master chief, I'm not sure where to put mickey yet but it's going well in my opinion. As for my personal life whether I'm going to update, I can't say for sure, I've been reading Halo Glasslands and so far it's very good, not as much of a Halsey hater as people think in my opinion, and I'm enjoying the parts about Lucy in it.)


	12. Chapter 12

ROOKIE

35 MINUTES AFTER DROP

James saluted towards Johnson. The soldiers around him paid close attention, the area seemed to be some kind of forerunner monument, along the side of it ran a steep cliff.

"Sir." Johnson nodded.

"Adieus soldier." He said, Rookie got out of stance.

"Hm, you're one of Buck's troopers." He said, Rookie nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you know plenty of me, so why are you here?"

"I've been told to assist with nearby marine forces." He said, Johnson nodded, taking a drag on his cigar.

"Very good, we could use you." He said looking around. The other marines kept a look out.

"Now you got the spiel about us going for one of the generators, right?" he asked. Then turned not paying attention… obviously a rhetorical question. He then went to rookie and gently took his submachine gun from him.

"Head up to the rocks, I presume you know how to operate a sniper rifle." He said handing Rookie one.

"Sir?"

"We have plenty of men down here, but only one sniper. He's up on the cliff and could use a #2." He said, Rookie sighed.

"Affirmative sir, I'll head right up there." He said, Johnson patted him on the back, then immediately looked to the other marines.

"The corps' not paying you by the hour, get moving!" he barked. James looked at his HUD and found the rock formation; he put the sniper rifle on his back and carefully climbed up the slope.

"Agh, Faire and Mickey don't have to deal with this crap, damn close combat specialists." He complained to himself, cutting his thumb on a rock. He got to the top. Johnson's voice spoke to him over the COM.

"Now the sniper should be nearby." He said, Rookie looked among the rocks and saw a man with a sniper rifle looking out onto some forces. Rookie stepped toward him, he immediately reacted pointing a pistol towards him, rookie almost slipped. The man slowly chuckled then lowered it.

"A hell jumper? I'll be damned." He said putting the pistol away.

"You're Johnson's sniper?" Rookie asked, the man nodded.

"I suppose I am, I'm Corporal Victor." He said, Rookie nodded. Victor held his hand out to Rookie.

"Lance Corporal Dante." He said shaking his hand. Victor nodded then looked out.

"Alright, Johnson sent me up here to keep a look out for Covenant heavy weapons, but after a firefight mainly the drones, my coms was disabled leaving the company in the dark, I'll need you to message Johnson." He said. Rookie nodded.

"Alright." He said. Rookie activated the COMS icon on his HUD.

"Sergeant, I hooked up with your sniper." He said.

"Good, I'll start heading to the other side, you tell me what we can expect and if necessary, engage." He said.

"Affirmative." Rookie looked to Victor.

"We need to head over the other side of this ridge." The man nodded.

"Alright, stick close to me." He said nudging along the rocks. They could see banshees flying about.

MICKEY

35 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Mickey sat behind cover.

"Well this is spectacular." Plasma was flying in a lot of directions. He attempted to do a sneak attack on some brutes with his rocket launcher. It worked except he only killed one brute out of the group of six, and they all knew his location. How he got into this situation, he could barely remember.

_Think, there's gotta be a way out of this._

Mickey pulled out his SMG and aimed towards a Grunt, he got a headshot, but the grunts started tossing plasma grenades.

"Awe come on." He yelled then ran farther back to avoid fire. He tapped his COM.

"Any idea what I should do?" he asked. He waited for a moment then got an answer.

"Well, I would presume in the object of not dying, you should run like hell." Dare answered.

"Oh… right." He answered back, he sighed then looked out and saw a plasma canister near the brutes, he aimed his rocket launcher and fired towards the canister. It hit and caused the canister to detonate killing most of the brutes.

"Heck yeah." He yelled. Then almost immediately the grunts stared at him.

"For the great journey!" one of them yelled activating two plasma grenades. Mickey immediately started running, this suicide. He kept running, until he made it to what looked like a crashed pelican ship. Suddenly a round went straight through the grunt, but it was a sniper round.

"Romeo?" he asked. He looked and saw in the tree was an ODST with a sniper rifle, he lowered to the ground.

"Miss me?" he asked. His visor de-polarized to reveal it was Romeo.

"I thought you were with the chief?" he asked.

"Yeah, well he dumped me here to protect the LZ, you?" he asked. Mickey sighed.

"I was just running, told to hook up with nearby forces." He said, Romeo nodded.

"Well since you've got nothing to do, mind helping me here?" he asked. Mickey nodded.

"Alright." He said. Romeo looked out then nudged him.

"We got nearby forces; I'm getting back in the tree. Grab a BR, and take aim, don't want to waste your rockets on grunts." He said. Mickey sighed then saw a dead Marine on the ground, clutching a Battle rifle; he lowered and slowly took it out of his hands.

"Gee I'm sorry about this." He said then got behind cover, to add to the illusion that the forces here were gone. The grunts looked around.

"Hm, the demon isn't here." The leader of them said.

"Maybe he too weak and just died in crash?" another one asked laughing.

"We should still look around." The grunts then proceeded to inspect the downed pelican. Romeo messaged him on the COM.

"Take it nice and easy, take out those grunts." He said. Mickey breathed then crept towards the one in the back making sure the others didn't notice him. He pulled out a knife and quickly stabbed it into his neck apparatus while holding his mouth, the grunt screeched, then slowly died.

"Good, three more." Romeo messaged. Mickey stepped towards another one and did the same procedure, however the grunt behind him took notice, Mickey's heartbeat increased he quickly took his rifle and swung it through the grunt's head like a golf-club. The grunt fell back on the floor dead.

"Damn Mickey, alright take out the last one, looks to be an elite Grunt." Romeo voiced back. The grunt looked among the wreckage and then picked up what looked to be a Spartan laser; he examined it then saw Mickey. He saw Mickey and immediately seemed angry, he held down the trigger on the laser.

_Crap_

Mickey immediately jumped out of the way slightly grazed by a red laser, it hit the tree Romeo was in and immediately the tree snapped to the side.

"Agh!" Romeo yelled hitting the ground. Mickey immediately kicked the grunt to the ground and then kicked it again until it gave up the ghost. Mickey breathed, and then spoke on his COM.

"That's four, how are you?" he asked.

"Get over here!" Romeo's voice rang on the COM. Mickey quickly got to the fallen tree to see Romeo on the ground gripping his leg.

"I think it's broken." Romeo said clenching his teeth. Mickey sighed then helped him up.

"C'mon, maybe there's something in those downed Pelican-"

"We don't have time for that, they probably heard that laser." He said, Mickey sighed.

"Alright, I'll help you get over there to find a place to hide; I'll engage any forces that come snooping." He said, Romeo nodded.

"Yeah, you'd better." He said, Mickey helped him to one of the pelicans and then looked out to see any Covenant.

"We got Jackals." Mickey said over the COM to Romeo.

BUCK

30 MINUTES AFTER LANDING

Eddy Buck stood at the turret while chief drove, the man was kind enough to let Dutch use the Spartan Laser. They drove near a cliff with grunts and a shade turret on top of it.

"What do we do?" Buck asked, the chief looked at it.

"We can't get pass them, if you have any plasma grenades, that'd be a good idea." He said,

"Good I got some." Dutch said.

"Alright, then we drive by and flank them, prepare to fire when we go by." He ordered to Buck.

"Yes sir." He said.

"On my mark… 3, 2, 1… Mark." Chief whispered and immediately drove by the cliff, Dutch threw two plasma grenades and Buck started firing the turret, the grenades impacted and ripped the shade turret apart, Buck immediately fired on the surviving grunts. They broke through them and kept moving forward. Chief looked forward.

"Ghosts, three of them." He said.

"That's not good." Buck said.

"You said it Gunny." Dutch answered, he took aim with the Spartan laser and fired on the middle one, it blew apart and pushed the one on its left and right to both sides, Chief immediately drove into the left one and pushed it off what seemed to be a cliff, he immediately stopped causing Buck to fling from the turret to the cliff wall, he shook and caught the wall and looked out… it was a long drop. He hung on the cliff and looked to chief who offered his hand. Buck took and Chief pulled hard while driving the Warthog in reverse from the cliff, Buck then saw a ghost drive by off the cliff he almost fell off of. He let go of Chief's hand and immediately hit a brute that was still trying to understand the situation. The brute understood well and caught him.

_Shit_

Dutch's voice rang on his com.

"Move Gunny!" Buck breathed and tried to wiggle out of the brute's grasp, and then he kicked it in the head and fell from its hands. Then almost immediately a red laser went straight through the brute. It fell back and then off the cliff.

The chief got out of the jeep and helped him up. Dutch joined him.

"I'm fine… just give me a minute…" Buck said, breathing deeply. Chief nodded and looked out over the cliff seeing solid ground and then a covenant blockade it was the entrance to the tower, they're objective but there was so much Covenant there. Buck held his head, and then took his helmet off for a moment.

"Gee…that was rough… that brute looked pissed." The master chief sighed.

"I think we have bigger problems." He said. Dutch and Buck looked out over the edge.

_Oh yeah… them… at least we're almost in the tower._

"How are we gonna get past that?" Dutch asked looking down at two grunts inspect the two fallen ghosts and the dead brute. The chief sighed then took a couple steps.

"We'll improvise."

(well, here's the next chapter… I really think I've improved my writing)


	13. Chapter 13

FAIRE

45 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Anna Faire walked along through the facility with the arbiter. 343 guilty spark fluttered by.

"Oracle, how long is this facility?" he asked, the robot looked down.

"I am unsure, the designs for this facility is much longer than the others, but then I suppose that compensates for its low altitude and-"

"So you don't know?" Faire immediately asked as the monitor tried to speak.

"Well… my knowledge of ark is very limited to begin with." It spoke, she sighed.

"Alright." They walked through a hallway and before getting to the door, the Arbiter got beside the wall to the side of the door.

"There are surely brutes on the other side." He said, he then looked to the other elites.

"Take position." The elite's nodded and turned on their cloaking. Faire looked at them, the arbiter sighed.

"Stay there." He then disappeared. Faire sighed.

"Easier said than done." The Arbiter stepped to the door, it opened then he and his elites entered, Faire peaked in.

_He knows his stuff, it's packed with brutes._

The Arbiter quickly got behind one brute and snapped his neck, the others followed, Anne slowly walked in and got behind cover, she pulled out the magnum and aimed towards a few grunts, she fired and they all fell to the ground, good thing it was the silenced version. A brute saw her and suddenly it turned into a deadly firefight, but they had the upper hand. They cleared the room and then made sure to look around for stragglers, all hostiles eliminated.

"Good, now we should-"Arbiter was cut off when an elite fell to the ground, they hurried to him. Faire looked at him, he suffered some plasma scouring. He knelt down to him. They started talking in their language, Faire looked down.

_Poor guy, it must suck to be the arbiter and to have people die under your watch_

"_**If the woman didn't show herself… I would of…"**_

"_**Only blame yourself brother, may the gods smile upon you"**_

"Farewell." The Arbiter slowly said. He set the elite down and sighed and grabbed the energy sword off his belt. The elite nodded.

"Finish it." He said, the Arbiter activated and stabbed the Elite. The elite gasped and then died, the Arbiter gave him a mercy killing. The Elite walked beside her.

"Nymph, we must make haste." Faire nodded.

"Do you have a name?" she slowly asked. The arbiter froze for a moment.

"Vadam, Thel Vadam." The Arbiter simply answered. She nodded.

"And that was?"

"A friend… of my keep… It did me no pleasure… but for him I had to do it, for his honor." Faire slowly nodded.

_A mercy killing… honor among elites is… crazy… could I do that for someone I care for? For James?_

She sighed and stopped thinking of it. She followed the Arbiter, clutching her shotgun tightly.

"I have a feeling we are close." The Arbiter said. Faire nodded.

"Lead the way."

ROOKIE

45 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Rookie and Victor walked around to the other side and took a look.

"Damn, I've never seen so much Covenant." Victor said looking through his scope, there was a lot, groups of brutes, and shade turrets… no wait, fuel rod shade turrets." Rookie breathed in and then Messaged Johnson.

"We have enemy visual… it's a lot, I think we'll need air support for this." He messaged. Johnson messaged back.

"Alright, look among the coveys and pick of stragglers, and then I want you both to see if there's any nearing our position." Johnson answered back.

"Affirmative." Rookie aimed the sniper rifle and saw a Brute elite near the edge.

"Take the shot." Victor nudged Rookie. He nodded and fired, the shot didn't go through his armor, but it caused him to fall down the cliff into the water below. Victor tapped him on the shoulder.

"Good, now my turn." He said immediately looking over. The covenant weren't alert of their presence yet. Victor aimed and quickly shot towards a small group of grunts near the back of the complex, they all died and fell over, and Rookie was amazed from his skill.

"How did you-." Rookie said, Victor nodded.

"Thanks, I get that a lot." He said smirking; they looked and saw a group going towards Johnson's convoy.

"Sergeant you've got hostiles nearing you, I count 1 wraith, and three brutes." Rookie answered on his comm.

"Alright, we'll make sure to hide; you take out the wraith operator." Johnson answered back; Rookie saw his group head back to the hills.

_He's really playing this safe_

Victor and Rookie took aim at the Wraith.

"If we time our shots just right, we can hit the back of the wraith and detonate it." He said.

"Acknowledged." Rookie answered. They both waited for the perfect opportunity and started shooting at the back of the wraith tank, each shot hit and it exploded, the brutes near it looked around, Victor immediately shot at the back of one's head. It fell to the ground. The convoy immediately fired on the remaining two brutes and easily brought them down.

"Good work, although next time, just go for the operator." Johnson voiced over the COM.

ROMEO

45 MINUTES AFTER LANDING

It was a real wonder why he didn't like him, one his real idiot demeanor, two that stupid look he always had on his face, and three… he broke his leg and had to rely on him. Romeo was on the hill where the anti-air wraith used to be, he was prone aiming with his sniper rifle while Mickey was watching for re-enforcements. Sometimes he really hated his life.

"Alright, take aim." Mickey's voice said over the COM.

"I know, just tell me which one to get." Romeo said. There was a large Covenant Convoy going through, about twelve targets, three of them brute, the rest were grunts and jackals.

"In the back of the group, there's a sniper… it'd be a real pain if he knew where we both were." Romeo sighed.

"Consider it dead." He answered and took aim at the back of the group, he shot and immediately he felt pain in his leg, it must have been from the kick the rifle gave every time it fired.

_When this is over, I'm getting a vacation, maybe Hawaii, don't care if the Covenant wins, still going to Hawaii_.

The sniper fell to the ground dead and then Romeo took aim at a straggling brute, he hit with a perfect headshot.

"Alright, now I presume would be a good time to warm up your rockets, they're all close together." He messaged Mickey over the COM.

"Got it." Mickey answered back. He saw Mickey get out of cover and fire towards the leading Brutes, it was a hit and created smoke from the hit and the impact on their armor. Romeo activated his visor and immediately saw the enemies highlighted in red. He aimed and fired towards one Grunt, and then towards the remaining Brute, then he saw a dropped plasma grenade…

MICKEY

48 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Mickey coughed and activated his Visor, then immediately there was a nearby plasma grenade explosion.

_How? None of those grunts primed a grenade? Unless…_

He heard Romeo laughing on the other side.

"You son of a-"

"Payback for my leg." Romeo answered. Mickey sighed, at least the Covenant here were gone. He then tapped his Comm.

"Mam, I think we're going to need more help." He said.

"…Alright, I just sent a message to the Dawn, you'll get some air support." She answered back. Romeo sighed.

"Why didn't we ask her to begin with?" He asked, Mickey answered back.

"Because there was too much interference, that's what happens when Covenant's nearby, they could then use it to triangulate our location." Mickey answered.

"Big words." Romeo answered simply. He looked up and saw Pelicans fly by and land.

"Lady said you needed help." The pilot asked. Mickey nodded.

"Yeah, it's just the two of us and Romeo's wounded." The man nodded.

"Alright, we can't take him back up right now, but we can help you stave off another attack." He said. Marines exited the Pelican. Suddenly a Fuel Rod went through the Pelican.

"Agh, I gotta get this thing out of here, besides… you guys seem a bit busy." The pilot said flying away. Romeo sighed. Mickey then looked to the others.

"You know your orders?" he asked, they nodded.

"Secure the LZ and watch for Covenant." He said, Mickey patted him on the shoulder.

"Good, and don't piss off the sniper."


	14. Chapter 14

DUTCH

45 MINUTES AFTER LANDING

"We'll improvise." The master chief Spartan 117 said, Dutch nodded.

"alright, how about we look among the nearby covenant, see if we can salvage something." Buck looked around the hill.

"Hm, there's a ghost up here we can use, maybe use its speed to draw their fire?" Buck asked. Dutch sighed.

_Always wanting to do things the easy way._

The chief shook his head.

"No, I'm not risking either of you." He said, Buck nodded.

"Thanks, means a lot… we could try and take out the snipers in the corner, real silently?" he supposed.

"Gunny, I think you're missing the problem, we can't get down there without getting shredded to pieces." Dutch said. Buck nodded.

"Alright, anyone have a long-range silenced weapon?" he asked, The chief sighed.

"We don't come supplied with that kind of stuff." He said, Dutch pulled out a secondary weapon.

"I have my SMG." Buck sighed, and then pulled out his silenced magnum.

"Chief, you're the best shot, can you try to take out those jackals with this?" he asked. The chief slowly took it.

"Hm, has a scope, shouldn't be too difficult. If any of them are alerted, use the Spartan laser on the tank." He said. Dutch nodded.

"Hey, I got this." He said, and then took aim. The covenant still didn't know what was up there.

"Gunny, watch the path, Coveys might send up some grunts." Dutch said, Buck sighed.

"Alright Dutch, I'll be sure to Discourage the curious." He said. he took aim watching their backs. The chief immediately took aim.

"Good range, on my mark I'll start firing." He said, Dutch gave a thumbs up.

"3, 2, 1… mark." He quickly fired three times, bringing down two Jackals and injuring another.

"They saw that." He simply said. Dutch immediately charged on the wraith. A red laser immediately impacted the wraith. It exploded, burning any brutes operating it.

"They're coming up." Dutch said seeing banshees start going up the path. Buck nodded and immediately started aiming his grenades. Dutch noticed the two untouched banshees many meters below them.

_They're not using them_

Dutch fired on a nearby shade turret and then heard an explosion; it was the plasma grenades Buck tossed at the ghosts.

"Good aim." Dutch said and then saw more forces coming up, Chief fired at the remaining snipers and then tossed the magnum away.

"It's out." Buck sighed.

"Wow… thanks." He fired at another banshee nearing them. Dutch fired again then sighed.

"Battery's dead… we need a new plan." He said. Chief looked at him and Buck; he sighed then saw the banshee get near.

"_The demon!" _The grunt behind it yelled. Chief didn't move.

_Is he crazy? Wants the ghost to ram him?_

The ghost charged towards him and then immediately the chief jumped onto the top as it flung off the cliff, Buck watched them go down and didn't bear to watch the park where they go splat. TheGhost got nearer and then was about to ram them, Dutch sighed.

"Gunny? How about we choose our fates?" he asked. Buck had sweat fall from his head but it couldn't be seen behind the helmet.

"Alright." They slowly got closer to the cliff the Grunt laughed as it charged towards them, Buck and Dutch immediately jumped from the cliff. Dutch's life flashed before his eyes, he remembered his training… and Gretchen… he missed her. He anticipated the moment of death but then suddenly he felt a strong pinch of pain on his shoulders and then turned to see the back of a… ghost? The driver then stopped roughly and released them. Dutch breathed in at his knees.

"Damn…" he looked to see The Spartan, master chief look to him and then Buck, they both made it. Buck immediately got up then fell to his knees.

"The hell?" he asked, he looked at the cliff and saw the grunt on the ghost about to go off it. The chief immediately threw a plasma grenade at it while it was in the air; it landed and immediately exploded while it was in free fall. The remains of the Ghost sent off to the sides. Dutch breathed in quickly then looked to the Chief.

"How did you… how?" he asked. The chief put his hand on his shoulder.

"When I improvise, I improvise…" he simply said. Dutch breathed in.

"I'll be damned." He said.

ROOKIE

1 HOUR AFTER DROP

Rookie Looked out and saw a Pelican flying buy, there was an obvious hole in it.

"Covenant tech, goes right through them." Victor said looking out, Rookie sighed.

"Yeah, I suppose." He said. He then heard something on his COM.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Dante… get out of here, hide… take Victor too…" Johnson's voice said.

"What? What's going on?" he asked. He looked out and saw Johnson's team being picked apart by Brutes. He could here Johnson on the COM taking to Commander Keyes. Victor looked out and saw Brutes and immediately fired towards them, getting a couple hits, they were about to turn towards them when A brute chieftain stopped them and then returned to firing on Johnson's group. After about 5 minutes of fighting the brutes won and the remaining survivors of Johnson's group, including the man himself were taken in a drop ship. Victor hit the side of the rocks; Rookie put his hand on his shoulder.

"We couldn't do anything to help, sniping a few brutes won't be enough." He said. Victor looked at him then sighed.

"…Fine… what do you saw we do?" he asked.

"We head back down there and find ammunition; I doubt they would just kill Johnson. We link up with one of the other teams and finish the job." Rookie said. Victor nodded.

"Sounds like a half-decent plan… let's get moving." He said starting to hurry down the rock face. Rookie followed.

_Right from under our nose…_

They headed down to the remains of Johnson's team. Most were dead, others were slightly alive. Rookie headed to a fallen soldier. He crouched beside the man.

"The sergeant's alright… right?" he asked, Rookie sighed and depolarized his visor.

"I don't know." He simply said. He nudged the marine on the shoulder, and then pulled out some bio foam.

"This should keep you together, for a while." He said spraying it into the man's armor; he breathed, and then nodded.

"Thanks." He said. The other soldiers weren't too lucky. Victor nudged for Rookie to come by.

"This yours?" he asked clutching a submachine gun with a silencer… the one Johnson took from Rookie to replace it with the sniper rifle.

"Yeah, Thanks." Rookie said grabbing it. He dropped the sniper rifle on the ground.

"No hard feelings?" he asked, Victor sighed.

"It's alright… let's just get this job done." He said. They looked out to see the other two towers disabled.

"There we go." Rookie said putting a clip into the rifle. He heard Pelicans nearby. His COM spoke up.

"Dante, I'm sending a pelican to your location, I recommend you board it." Dare said.

ROMEO

ONE HOUR AFTER LANDING.

The marines held off the Covenant assault. Romeo messaged his comm.

"Mam, the LZ is clear, you can land your birds here." He said.

"Affirmative, Keyes out." Her voice said. Romeo sighed then messaged Dare.

"Mam, how is it looking for the others?" he asked. Dare didn't say anything for a moment, and then spoke.

"They're all still alive, even the recruit. I'm messaging them all to meet back at the landing zone; we'll need the group's effort to take out the final tower." Romeo sighed, a bit of relief.

"Alright… but for the record… I have a broken leg." He said.

"I'm quite aware of that, it turns out one of the survivors of Johnson's team was an excellent sniper. His name is Quentin Victor." She said, Romeo sighed.

_Fancy Q names, better be damn good._

"Alright." He answered back. He saw pelicans nearby start to land. He then spoke on his COM.

"Mickey, team's alright." He messaged.

"Alright, that's great It'll be great to see the guys all here together." He answered back.

BUCK

55 MINUTES AFTER LANDING

Buck saw the reinforcements come and go through the door to the tower, The chief recommended that He and Dutch remain behind to "Watch the entrance" Buck knew this was just because of all he and Dutch already went through, and graciously agreed. Buck removed his helmet and pulled out a protein bar and took a bite.

"Aw, takes like shit." He said, Dutch nodded.

"You didn't seem so bothered about it before?" Buck sighed.

"I know, just makes me think, if I die here… and this is the last thing I eat…" he said. Dutch removed his helmet.

"You thinking about Veronica?" he asked. Buck stared at him and then sighed.

"I can't help it, you know… "He said. Dutch nodded.

"I knew you two had history…" he said. Buck nodded.

"Yeah… we were involved a couple years back… I didn't know about her job and then I asked her the question." He said. Dutch sighed.

"Oh, that question." He said, Buck nodded.

"Then the phone rang and who could it be but ONI… We got into a heated discussion… and broke it off…" he said, Dutch nodded.

"I see, and now that you're back together again, you fear that you're never going to see her again." He said. Buck nodded.

"Wouldn't you, the only thing keeping us alive is the man in the green suite?" Dutch put his hand on his shoulder.

"Edd, you're a survivor, you survived Reach, now the chance that the chief saved us… I say that's just luck, and if anyone's got it… you do." He said, Buck slowly smiled then looked to see the Top of the tower stop.

"Well, speaking of luck, looks like 117 finished up." He said and immediately put his helmet back on to listen to the COMMS. Buck did the same.

"Speaking of the lady." Dutch said.

"Eddy, Dutch, You've got new orders." Dare quickly said. Buck sighed.

"Alright, what?"

"You too are meeting up with the rest of your team at the LZ." She said. Dutch breathed.

"Are they all okay?" he asked, Dare answered back.

"Yes, they're all in perfect condition… except for Romeo, but you need to hurry." She said then got off. Buck sighed then walked over to the drop pods that were left, he quickly picked up and assault rifle and battle rifle, Dutch grabbed a rocket launcher and an SMG.

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." He said, Buck nodded.

"Agreed. Let's take the warthog they also left, I don't think the chief will mind." Buck said. Dutch tapped him on the shoulder.

"I like you're thinking."

FAIRE

55 MINUTES AFTER DROP

Anne Faire saw as the elevator moved up, it seemed strange to her, hearing about the forerunners and then being on this world. The Arbiter looked up as 343 Guilty Spark chided on to some elite. They finally reached the top and they activated they're cloaks; Anne quickly got behind solid cover and listened to the Brutes up there.

"Hm… Odd, there is nobody on the Elevator." One said, another one hit his shoulder.

"This technology would not malfunction." He immediately said, Faire sighed.

_They worship this stuff; of course none of it would be broken_

The arbiter looked to her then the brutes.

"I'll create a distraction, you kill the chieftain." He said, she nodded. He, while cloaked, threw a grenade to one side, it exploded and blew one of the brutes back.

"What?" the chieftain asked. Faire breathed and quickly moved from cover to cover, careful to avoid them seeing her. The arbiter immediately threw a spike grenade, the Brutes jumped away.

"Now I know there's something here." The chieftain said. Faire immediately got behind the cheiftan and pulled out a combat knife.

_Here goes_

She quickly stabbed it into the Chieftain's neck hard.

"Agh!" he yelled throwing it away and raising his hammer towards her.

_Fuck_

She quickly fired her shotgun into the Brute, having his shields disabled, he stepped back. The other brutes went towards her when Arbiter and the other Elites uncloaked and then quickly killed them. Faire fired into the Chieftain again, he fell back, more of his blood sputtered the ground, and he raised his hammer one more time. Faire fired into his face, pushing him back and to the ground... dead. She breathed heavily then pulled the knife out of the Brute; it was an old present… from her parents.

_To think, I complained about getting this for Christmas_

The Arbiter nodded.

"Very good, now let's disable the panel." He said and walked beside her and pushed the yellow piece on the hologram in. Suddenly the light emitting from the tower into the region dissipated, Faire looked out to see they were pretty far up. She then saw that the tower the chief had headed into had been disabled, now that left Johnson's… it remained active. The arbiter stepped forward.

"Hm, we should hurry out and see what is with the delay." He said. Faire nodded.

"Wouldn't it be a waste of time heading all the way back down?" she asked, the Arbiter slowly nodded.

"You are correct, that's why we are taking an 'alternate' route." He said, suddenly the glass from the panel shattered to reveal a pelican. Faire stepped back aiming her shotgun. Arbiter seemed unfazed, she stared at him.

"You really are a cold hard son of a bitch." She said seeing him unaffected; he took this as a joke.

"I suppose so, we couldn't get in like this because there was a shield blocking the actual genrators." He said. She nodded, she and the elites got on the Pelican, and the pilot looked to her.

"Lance Corporal, you're needed at the LZ; I'll get you there and these elites to their drop ships." He said. She sighed and removed her helmet.

"Alright, get me there." She said and leaned back in the seat. At least most of the mission was complete; her hair was starting to fall out of place. The Arbiter looked out on the Ark, she looked at him.

"If you were still into the salvation thing… wouldn't this would be a pretty big deal to you." She said curiously. The arbiter sighed.

"I'd suppose… it's a lie now… being here somewhat reminds me of my home, back on Sanghelios." He said, Anne looked at him.

"I bet you're excited to get home." She said, he nodded.

"I am… as you say… home is where the heart is." She chuckled nodding.

"My home was Earth, and there's already been enough going on there." She said, the Arbiter nodded and watched out over the Ark.

(I've written a couple chapters in advance to 16, I have the events all planned out.. Can I get some reviews? I haven't written this stuff for a while and would like to see how I can improve, I might return to past chapters to re-edit them. I think the only problem so far I'm having is doing battle scenes. Any reviews would be nice to hear considering this story is no longer on hiatus and as the chief once said; I plan to finish this fight.)


	15. Chapter 15

EDDY BUCK'S ODST TEAM

1:10 MINUTES AFTER DROP, RESETTING MISSION PAREMETERS

AWAITING NEW MISSION FROM VERONICA DARE…

The pelican landed allowing Faire to get off, she was at the LZ. She looked out and saw Mickey and Romeo there; Mickey helped Romeo over and sat him down.

"Hey sweetheart." He said nonchalantly, and then removed his helmet.

"Miss me?" he asked, Faire chuckled and removed her helmet.

"Not as much as you'd think." She answered. He nodded.

"Saving that for Rookie I see." He said smiling, Romeo groaned.

"Awe quit it both of you." He said annoyed, Faire looked at him.

"What happened to you?" Romeo sighed.

"Idiot broke my leg." HE said, Mickey stared at him.

"Did not, I was trying to get that grunt stealthily, it's not my fault he found a Spartan laser." Mickey complained.

"Whatever." They heard the sound of a Warthog going and saw two familiar ODSTs. It parked near them and then it's occupants exited.

"Romeo, good to see you took care of business while we were away." Eddy Buck said removing his helmet, Romeo staired at him and sighed.

"Agh fuck you." He said, Dutch laughed removing his helmet.

"Well, family's about together." Buck shook his head.

"Nope, we still gotta wait for Rookie and that sniper from Johnson's convoy." He said, Romeo sighed.

"Speaking of which." Faire said hearing a pelican get nearer. It finally lowered to the ground and released two of it's occupants.

"Rookie, glad you could make it." HE said, James sighed and nodded.

"I try my best to make it on time sir." He said, Buck nodded, he then turned to the Marine to Rookies right.

"And you are?" the man saluted.

"Sir, Corporal Quentin Victor, Foxtrot." He said, Buck nodded.

"Alright, I'll just need to ask you a few questions before hand. Squad, I guess you can rest for a moment." Buck said walking some feet away to talk to the Corporal. Rookie walked into the group, it became a slight circle spanning Mickey, then Faire, then Dutch, then Romeo who was on the ground. Rookie got in between Mickey and Faire. She smiled and patted him on the back.

"You can take the helmet off you know." She said, he sighed.

"Nah, can't be too careful." He said. She nodded.

"Working to stay true to your promise." She simply said, he nodded feeling a slight blush creep up his neck. He then looked to the others, Mickey sighed.

"Meh, if I were you, I wouldn't talk to Romeo right now." He said, Rookie nodded.

"What'd you do to him?" he asked, Mickey sighed.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later." He said, Romeo gave him the evil look. Dutch laughed.

"Sheesh, I hope this won't shake up the squad hierarchy too much." He said, Romeo sighed.

"I'll try not to kill him… today." He said. Buck returned with Victor.

"Alright, he's clear, helmets on, now." He said. They did so, Victor tuned into the frequency.

"Can you hear me?" Keye's voice rang; they all gave a slight nod.

"Affirmative, mam what's our situation?" Miranda Keyes quickly answered.

"As you can see, Johnson's fire team failed to complete they're objective, I need you and some other Marines to complete it." Keyes said. Buck sighed.

"Sorry mam, but how exactly will we go about doing that?" he asked.

"Easy, Johnson called in for a aerial strike, and since I couldn't get them in to assist Johnson, you can use them… and I'm talking Hornets." She said. Almost immediately a sound came by and the saw a couple hornets land by them.

"Take those hornets, neutralize the opposition, and shut down the tower." She said. the squad agreed.

"Alright mam, but we have a couple issues, we have a man wounded that could use some assistance- Buck looked at Romeo- and what of the master chief?" he asked. Keyes answered back.

"We've sent a pelican to pick up the wounded, it'll come by the LZ as well, as for the master chief, he's making his way there." She said, Buck breathed in and answered.

"Alright mam, consider it done." He said.

"I shall, and the elites will also assist you there." She said and then there was static. Buck looked to the marines.

"We got our orders, let's move." He said, Romeo grumbled. Buck sighed.

"Look, it's just a broken leg, I'm sure they'll get you patched up in a couple hours so you can help us kill the prophet." He said, Romeo sighed.

"Fine, just make sure you survive this part first." He said. Buck nodded and punched his elbow..

"Alright, everyone, board the hornets." He said. They started walking towards them.

"You know how this works, one driver, two riders. Faire, you and Mickey are our best pilots, so you drive." He said. They both saluted.

" Mickey, me and the sniper are with you, Faire gets Dutch and Dante." He said. Rookie looked at him for a moment.

"A problem?" he asked.

"Er… no, I'm just accustomed to Rookie, that's all sir." He said, Buck sighed.

"Whatever, The others can call you what they want, but you've grown a bit ever since Mombasa." He said, patting him on the shoulder, Rookie nodded. Rookie headed to the hornet and got on one side of it, Dutch got on the other.

"Well, now we'll be getting to know each other better." Dutch said joking; Rookie looked to him and felt the Hornet slowly rise up. He attached the safety harness to the clip on his belt. Dutch did the same. (you don't seriously think marines just hung on for dear life?) Faire breathed into they're coms.

"Alright, all systems are a go, what's your read-out mickey?" she asked. Rookie saw the others on Mickey's hornet.

"Fairley decent, we have a couple issues with the rockets from previous battle, will only shoot one at a time." Mickey replied.

"Well… then you better make the best of it." Buck answered back to them.

"Affirmative…sir." Mickey said. Rookie clutched his SMG closely and looked to see Banshees.

"Evasive maneuvers, fire rockets!" Faire yelled over the COM. Rookie fired his smg at one, and then slowly stopped.

"You're just here for the ride Rookie, best to wait till we are on the ground." Dutch said. Rookie nodded.

"Does that go for you too?" he asked, Dutch smiled beneath his helmet.

"Nah, I can take anything they throw at me." He said and immediately fired a Spartan laser through a banshee, the craft fell apart and fell into the water. Rookie sighed.

"I need to get one of those." Dutch chuckled.

"Maybe next time, you know how these things work, we drop you off and you try to carve through them." He said, Rookie nodded.

"As long as they don't blow us out of the sky first." He said. Faire answered back.

"Hey, I'm a better driver then you two'll ever be." Rookie sighed.

"Alright." Faire started firing towards the banshees; Rookie felt the craft shake as missiles fired out. Dutch leaned out for another shot at a banshee, going straight through it.

"Yeah!" Dutch cheered. Rookie could see the installation… and the large covenant presence there.

"Faire, keep on the move, they have fuel rod shade turrets!" HE could hear a groan on the other side.

"Oh and… you too, mickey." He added. The other hornets quickly scattered.

"Damn." Buck groaned, the covenant saw them and started firing around them.

"Evasive, I repeat, evasive maneuvers!" buck yelled. Rookie sighed.

"We're not going to last long here, we need to take out a turret and land!" rookie yelled.

"Well? What's my order?" Mickey asked avoiding fire. Buck slowly nodded.

"Dante's right, punch a hole through and land, we're better on the ground anyways!" he yelled.

"Got it!" Mickey said firing a rocket towards the left side of the base. Faire joined in and broke through the turret.

"Good work, land and get moving." He yelled. Rookie put his hand to the cable.

"Alright, jump once we hit ground!" Faire yelled. She fired rockets towards a nearby group and landed, Rookie and Dutch dis-attached the clips and jumped off. Faire sighed then looked to them.

"Mine is still in good condition, I'll give you air support!" she said immediately rising back up. Rookie looked to Dutch. HE looked to the hornet, then to Rookie.

"She'll be fine, we need to take out nearby hostiles." He said switching to his SMG. Rookie nodded.

"You got it." He immediately fired towards a dazed grunt and then towards a Brute.

Buck and Mickey landed in the same area, buck got off.

"Come on Mickey, no point in driving that piece of crap." He said, Mickey was about to disagree, and then looked out.

"Crap!" he quickly opened the hatch and jumped out, a fuel rod immediately went through the Hornet and blew it to pieces, Mickey breathed heavily, Buck slowly helped him.

"It's fine Mickey." He said, Victor looked at both of them and then took aim with his sniper rifle.

"Hey, once you two get finished, I'm going to help the others." He said running off. Mickey looked to Buck and nodded.

"Let's go." Mickey quickly loaded a rocket into his RPG.

"I'll take out the shades." Buck nodded.

"Alright, be careful… they know we're here." He said and quickly hurried towards a group of grunts guns-blazing.


	16. Chapter 16

FAIRE

20 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Anne Faire pulled back on the throttle for the hornet.

"Damn Covenant's everywhere." She voied and fired on a shade turret, it seemed to be one of those new reinforced shade turrets they've started using and immediately turned towards her hornet and started firing. Immediately she fired another rocket nly to see it explode in her face and push the Hornet back. She looked at the screen.

ENGINE TEMP. CRITICAL

_Awe come on!_

Faire pulled back to get out of the turret's view, she looked at the status, one of her missile launchers was destroyed. Only three more to work with. She sighed then voiced into her COM.

"My bird's taken some damage; I won't be as effective helping you." She said. Eddy Buck's voice returned saying.

"Very well, land and fight with us or keep flying, your choice.' He said. Faire swallowed.

_They haven't clipped my wings, I should keep going._

Faire pulled up and fired missiles towards a group of Brutes; it disabled their shields and killed one. Immediately she saw them drop down dead. She looked to the left and saw the Foxtrot Sniper.

"Good work Marine!" Buck voiced over.

"Of course sir." HE returned. Faire recognized the accent, this guy was from earth. She sas Mickey fire a rocket and immediately the shade that had been a problem was wiped away. They were winning. Faire fired towards another turret and killed the operator; suddenly one of her thrusters went dead.

"What?" she looked to her rear view mirror and saw Banshees and a Phantom.

"Reinforcements!" she yelled over the COM going higher to avoid the whirling plasma. She breathed and then saw a green Phantom and Banshees.

_Must be the Arbiter and his crew_

"Humans, I have come to assist." Thel Vadum's voice echoed in her COM.

"Alright, get these Banshees off my back!" she yelled firing towards another one. A green banshee boosted and immediately slammed into the normal colored one, the purple banshee's wings broke apart and it fell into the ocean below. Faire breathed and then looked to the Phantom.

"We need to take out the Phantom before it becomes a problem for the ODSTs, do something, anything!" she yelled immediately firing rockets. The Elite Banshees immediately fired fuel rods towards the Phantom, they staggered it but it immediately fired Plasma.

"Victor, take out the grunt operating the plasma turret!" Buck yelled on his COM. The marine obliged and immediately a third of the plasma stopped.

"I'll aim for its underside, cripple the other Turrets." She then started homing onto the location, her hand felt sweaty. This job was really starting to get to her.

_When we get done with this… what do I do then?_

She shook the thought away and fired the homing missiles which got a direct hit. She saw another wave come.

"Damn it, there's more of them!" she saw her ODST squad was through about half of the hostiles at the entrance to the tower.

"This just keeps getting better." Dutch's voice answered back, she sighed, it was nice to get feedback from her squad, the last team she had didn't really embrace the idea of communication.

"Gunny, I don't think we can hold off the banshees, and take out the current residence like this." Mickey said.

"Your right… we should fall back." Buck answered back.

"No, we've gotten this far, we need to keep pushing." James Dante, the Rookie immediately said. She swallowed.

_Careful my ass_

"You have a point, but when that wave comes… we'll be wiped out." Buck answered.

"Won't be needed." A familiar voice answered back on the COM. Faire turned to the right of the control room and saw about five hornets coming.

"Chief?" Faire asked.

"Affirmative." The Spartan answered and then fired towards the remaining shade turrets, shattering them.

"Change of plan, we're going with your idea Dante." Buck immediately said on schedule. Faire focused back on the Wave, there was about ten banshees, and one Phantom. A hornet hovered near hers, the Pilot then said.

"I'll draw ones fire, you take it out." He said then firing on a banshee, the banshee immediately charged towards his; she fired her Rockets and immediately tore through it. She saw the Green banshees were still doing well. Faire sighed then looked at her control panel.

_STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY 56%_

She sighed and fired towards another Banshee, it got smart and started using banshee tricks to avoid and the charged towards her, she tried to avoid but her cockpit got nicked by its wing.

_STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY 32%_

"Give me support!" she yelled, another of her thrusters was disabled, as well as two of her Rockets. The Arbiter's Banshee immediately flew by.

"I have your back, human." He said. she breathed and fired another Rocket. The Chief and his Hornet crew all fired rockets towards the Phantom. She looked down on it and started to see static.

"Crap, it's going to blow!" she yelled. It wasn't like when normally a phantom exploded, this was different. When static starts appearing over a banshee, it means that there were bombs placed in it and the crew was going to detonate. When it's bombs that go off inside of it… it's about as dangerous as a scarab going off, like a frag grenade. Her Hornet was the closest to it and would face the full impact of whatever happened. She boosted up to try and reach the cliff of the control center. The banshees kept firing on her.

STRUCTERAL INTEGRITY 31%... 29%... 25%

_I need to go!_

She boosted up with her thrusters and about reached the ground when the bombs went off. A short range shockwave immediately and disabled the nearby banshees as well as her Hornet. Power disabled and she started lowering, it was an EMP blast. She immediately unstrapped herself and opened the cockpit and jumped. And got to the edge, her breathing went rapid. She grabbed for ground but couldn't find traction and fell, then a hand grabbed for hers. She looked up to see and ODST, one of her squad, he pulled on her hand and then actually her hand fell out of the glove, he immediately caught her with his other hand and pulled her up. She then looked down the cliff and saw the Hornet reach the bottom and blow up, along with the Covenant banshees. She then looked at her squad member and recognized his very plain looking armor.

"James… holy shit." She breathed taking the helmet off. He knelt down beside her and patted her on the back.

"It's alright." He said. The master chief landed and went to work with the other squad members and the elites to take out the remaining forces; the Covenant in the air was wiped out. She then heard from James's COM.

"Dante, do you have her?" He asked. Rookie swallowed.

"Yes, sir she's alright, just a little spooked." He said.

"Good, we'll take care of the remnants, you stay with her." Buck answered back. Rookie breathed and then removed his helmet. She smiled to see he went through a lot as well; his hair looked matted down and sweaty. He sighed.

"You've been through quite a bit, is that… two, I count three strands out of place?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Good point." She looked into his eyes.

_It's clear…_

She quickly kissed him softly, he kissed back for a moment and then sighed looking into her. His hand grazed her cheek.

"Anne…I" Faire immediately stood up and stepped back. She saw Mickey, who saw them like that… he was practically Buck's dog, and would immediately tell the captain… at least she thought that way. She putted her helmet back on and hurried away.

THE ROOKIE

56 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

James Dante looked Faire walk away, he sighed then saw Mickey.

"Hey, sorry to cut into your little moment, but we just got through to the entrance, it's clear." He said, James nodded annoyed. He then quickly putted his helmet on roughly standing towards him. Mickey sighed.

"Look, I'm really sorry about this, I won't tell the captain and you two need to deal with this, but when we're not in the middle of a freaking war zone." He said. Rookie tried to find anger to lash out at Mickey, but he was his best friend, and just couldn't do it now.

"You're right… let's win this thing first." He said. Mickey nodded.

"But still, it was great to know I was right." He said. James let out a chuckle.

"I suppose that's rare." He said. Mickey shrugged.

"I suppose it is." He then looked at Mickey. Mickey then looked at Faire who was walking away, and then he looked to Rookie.

"What happened to her right gauntlet?" he asked. Rookie sighed.

"Slipped off when I pulled her up, we're not built like Spartans you know." He said. Mickey nodded.

"Yeah, she doesn't seem to be the type who likes conscripting her hands like that." He said, Rookie nodded.

"Hopefully it won't be a problem, let's hurry back." He said. The two jogged to the entrance with the others. The chief was busy talking to the Arbiter about the plan with Elites standing guard around the facility, other Marines were around. Faire had seemed to quickly put herself back into the team dynamic, which meant talking to the new guy, Victor.

"So, you from earth?" Faire asked, Victor sighed.

"Do I make it obvious?" he asked, she chuckled.

"The accent gives it away… Midwest NA?" He nodded.

"Nebraska, and you? I presume a south city girl, Louisiana?"

"Florida, I used to have the accent, but I adapted when I joined the Corps." Faire answered back. Rookie listened in; it was interesting to hear about these two. Talking about earth was interesting, at least for a kid who grew up on Luna. Plus imagining that Faire had a southern accent was interesting. He hurried to Buck who was busy watching them all.

"Dante, good for you and Mickey to make it." He said. Rookie nodded.

"Always a pleasure." He said. Buck patted him on the shoulder plate. Rookie looked at the strange structure.

"So what's the word from command?" Rookie asked. Buck looked to him, and sighed.

"We've had some contact issues, however… Dare's messaged me over Romeo, he was moved to the Dawn because of issues on Say My Name… it was weird though, she stopped mid-sentence, doesn't seen too professional." he said. Rookie sighed.

"Something the matter?" Rookie slightly chuckled.

"I'd suppose, since all my stuff is on the Say my Name, if something were to happen…" Buck laughed slightly.

"Don't worry, we finish this mission, and return to earth." He said. Rookie looked down for a moment.

"Sir… how do you know for certain?" he asked. Buck frowned from behind his Visor.

"To be honest… I don't, but you just have to believe." He said. Rookie nodded.

"I'll check in with the Chief and the Arbiter." Buck said and walked away. Rookie's hand slowly went to his pocket and pulled out the familiar box with a ring inside, he clenched it in his hand.

"Believe."


	17. Chapter 17

EDDY BUCK

1 HOUR AFTER MISSION START

Buck approached his two superiors, well technically the alien wasn't his CO and the Master Chief was about the same rank except in a different division. They turned towards him.

"How's your team?" The chief asked, Buck breathed then answered.

"Frosty, the new recruit's doing well, except for an equipment issue." He said noticing Faire's lack of a right gauntlet, the chief sighed.

"I doubt it'll be an issue in the future, but if it does, send her back to the frigate." He said. Buck saluted.

"Of course, now what's the situation inside?" The Arbiter looked at him and then looked into the building.

"The scouts we sent in ten minutes ago haven't returned… I fear the worse." He said. Buck nodded.

"Alright, how about we take a look?" he asked. The arbiter chuckled.

"You lack stealth armor, it would be best to send some more elites in." he said. Buck sighed.

"What, so they can die too?" he asked. The shangheli stared at him. The chief looked to both of them.

"Both of you calm down, We do not have time to dispute, we've already used up enough time to send scouts in, I'll go in with a couple men and cut through." He said, looking at the Arbiter then Buck. He slowly saluted. The chief chose a few elites and marines to go in, they entered and disappeared, Buck could hear fighting on the other side. He looked at the Arbiter, elite at his highest power. The elite stared down at him and simply said.

"Do not test me, human." He said and then walked into the building, a couple elites followed, blatantly ignoring the chief's orders. Dutch walked up behind Buck and slapped him on the plates.

"Way to stand your ground, always hated elites." He said. Buck chuckled slightly.

"How did I do?" Dutch smirked from behind his helmet.

"Eh, I'd say decently, you got your message across." He said. Buck nodded.

"Yeah." He said. He looked at the remaining Marines outside the structure; it was his team, the sniper, and a couple other pilots and elites. Buck heard a slight beep in his COM.

"Hey captain." He heard Romeo's voice say, Buck tapped his helmet.

"Romeo, good to hear from you, how's everything?" he asked. Romeo then answered.

"Fine I guess, everything's gone to hell though, I got wounded, I can't imagine it what's happening on Say-My-Name." he said. Buck breathed for a moment.

"Alright, how's your situation?" he asked. Romeo chuckled.

"Good I guess, I should be ready to leave in a couple hours." He said. Buck nodded.

"Fine, so tell me, why are you contacting me?" he asked. Romeo sighed on the other end.

"Dare told me to keep an eye on you, gave me a data-pad and some information then sent me off to the Dawn. Something's going on there, on Say-My-Name, I don't know what though." He said. Buck breathed.

"Must be something, Veronica loves her job, there would need to be a good reason." He said.

"I guess, but maybe it's big, anyways I'll now direct you, since I have nothing better to do and I did take a course in this back at the academy." He said. Buck sighed.

"I bet you learned a lot, Romeo." He emphasized the "Romeo" part.

"Yeah, well fuck you, I'll message you when we have more Intel." He said, the line ended. Buck chuckled. This was their thing, chat a bit and then insult, fun stuff.

_Wonder what's happening with Veronica?_

Buck looked to his team.

"Gentlemen, we have an issue." He said. They looked to him.

"We've had some issues, so now Romeo's monitoring us, I have no idea, but he knows his stuff." He said. Faire looked at him.

"What happened to Dare?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know, Romeo just got on, he was on Veronica's frequency, so it must be legit. Let's finish this, and head home." He said. Mickey chuckled.

"To think, this wouldn't have happened if I didn't break his leg." He said. Buck nodded.

"I suppose, we would have had a heartless ONI bastard contacting us." He said. The others chuckled.

"True I-" The COM started.

"Gunn-ray sergeant, the area is clear; I'm proceeding to the top." The master chief said. Buck looked to them.

"You heard the chief, let's head in." he said. The ODSTs quickly slipped on their helmets.

MICKEY

1 HOUR AND 10 MINUTES FROM MISSION START

Michael Crespo walked into the structure behind Dutch holding his SMG to the ready. Rookie, Victor, and then Faire followed behind. Buck looked out.

"Hm, no hostiles, adies." He said. Mickey lowered his rifle. The Elites followed behind them, they didn't seem eager to look at the dead bodies inside, but hurried to the Elevator, to talk to the Marines about their situation. The Arbiter was among them and then walked to join the ODST's group. Mickey looked around the room, it was impressive. His helmet de-polarized.

"Fancy architecture." He said. Rookie nodded.

"Yeah… does give a sort of… grandiose feeling." He said.

"-'Cept for the blood." Victor said.

"Good point, I suppose the blood does ruin the feeling." Mickey answered back. There were a couple dead elites, but overall the chief made it through, mostly it was Brutes on the ground, with bullets in where their eyes use to be. Mickey crouched over one, it had yellow armor, and so must have been the leader.

"What is your situation? Do not tell me the Heretics have broken through!" an oldish voice yelled. It was strong with authority. The source of it came from some communicator. Mickey sighed.

"Hey, how come the Covey's speak English? We're not using translation software or anything?" he asked. Dutch sighed,

"Maybe they're just that smug, wants us to understand everything so it will hurt that much more if we die." He said. Mickey looked at him.

"A bit dark, don't you thinking?" he asked. Dutch shrugged.

"I dunno, just thinking." He said, suddenly on the communicator, they heard plasma firing.

"The hell?" Victor asked looking at it; they could hear a struggle on the other side.

"Do not kill him, you FOOL!" the voice yelled.

"What, you too big and dumb to activate this piece of Junk?" a familiar voice asked. The transmission ended. Probably shot.

"Sargent Johnson… he's alive." Victor said. Mickey nodded.

"That's great. Maybe he'll kill Truth." He said joking.

"Yeah, maybe." Rookie said sighing. The Arbiter walked in between them.

"Your Sergeant does have a certain quality that would make him a candidate." He said. Victor nodded.

"Yeah, he saved my life back on Earth." Suddenly the ground shook.

"What?" Dutch asked. He saw Marines running from the Elevator, obviously stationed there by the Chief. One of them had a sort of… growth on him; it had a sort of… vomit color.

"Holy shi-"he yelled then quickly fell to the ground. Suddenly the Growth grew larger and he changed… into some sort of… thing. It picked up his pistol and started firing.

"Return fire!" Buck yelled immediately. Mickey fired his SMG at it and then it fell over. The arbiter hurried to it, energy sword in hand. He immediately slashed through it, it fell apart into pieces. Buck and the others quickly looked to each other, and got closer to the 'creature'

"What is that thing?" Buck asked. The Arbiter looked at them.

"The Flood."

ROMEO

15 MINUTES AFTER GIVEN MISSION FROM VERONICA DARE

1 HOUR AND 5 MINUTES AFTER SQUAD RE-ASIGNMENT

Kojo Agu sat at the desk; his leg was in a caste from which it would heal in a few short hours, not a bad set up. Other UNSC navy personnel were stationed around him in contact to other groups on the Ark. He sighed and talked on the earpiece.

"Now seriously Dare, why can't you direct them?" he asked. There was a sigh on the other end.

"I'm sorry, that's between me and ONI, I have new orders now and in case you haven't noticed, this ship has gone to hell." She said. Kojo looked out the nearby window of the Say-My-Name. He could see it took quite some damage.

"I bet. That ship was in the Harvest Campaign."

"It's an old bird, but it can take a lot of abuse." She said. Kojo sighed.

"I bet that's why it survived back in Mombasa." He then looked out the window; he could see R'tas 'Vadam's ship, the Shadow of Intent.

_Jeez are they close, probably eager to glass us the moment the prophets die_

"So really, my injury is really convenient for you, isn't it?" he asked. Dare sighed on the other end.

"I'm sorry, but I have a job to do… I can't change that for anyone… not even Buck." She said. Kojo sighed.

"He misses you, when I contacted him… I bet he would love to be in my place right now." He said. Dare seemed silent on the other end.

"I intend to make it up to him… Dare out." She said after a ten second pause. He groaned then looked at the squad's location, then at their helmet feed.

_Hm, damn Spartan did a good job, too bad… I expected him to-… what the hell is that?_ He watched Buck's Vid feed and saw some sort of creature, he immediately started typing on the holo-panel. He immediately looked out the window to see Shadow of Intent falling towards the ark, and there was a strange crashed ship. It looked so… organic. He looked around himself to immediately see everyone was in frenzy, talking about the flood and about John 117's report on the Halo Ring as well as Delta-Halo.

"I… I can't believe it."

(Alright, great to get some reviews, I've typed up the rest of the story, and it just needs little edits here and there. I think my only problem so far is I'm just not very descriptive in some places.)


	18. Chapter 18

FAIRE

1 HOUR AND 20 MINUTES FROM MISSION START

Anne Faire stared at the… flood, as the arbiter said. Suddenly they saw more of these strange swarms rushing towards them.

"Fire!" Buck yelled firing on them. Faire acknowledged and fired a round from her shotgun, it impacted three and immediately they fell apart into… she didn't know what.

"Christ." Romeo said over the COM. She tapped it.

"Anything you'd like to tell us?" she asked.

"Hey, I know about as much as you do, these things attack in swarms I suppose, and with the bigger ones, it'd be best to use a shotgun." He said sounding like he was reading something.

"Alright, then we neutralize the flood and wait for the chief." Buck said. Rookie looked at him.

"He could be dead for all we know." He said, Buck breathed about to retort.

"No, he's alive." Romeo immediately said.

"I just got access to his Vid-feed… he's going down the Elevator now." He said. The Arbiter looked towards the Elevator to see the Master Chief John 117 running off, assault rifle in hand, he immediately joined the ODSTs in firing on the flood. They eliminated them quickly and hurried outside. The higher ups spoke on the COM.

"Shipmaster, what's your status?" Keyes asked.

"Significant damage! Weapon systems disabled." R'tas Vadum replied on the COM.

"Move to a safe distance, stay away from the flood."

"The Ark is out of range of all the active installations! Priority: We must contain this outbreak, before-" Faire saw 343 Guilty Spark, fluttering about, he fired on the Flood. It was a yellow beam of energy, like what she read in the report about sentinels.

_Lightbulb's here… cool I guess_

"No. First, we stop Truth. Then we deal with the Flood." Keyes spoke back.

Faire fired towards a nearby Flood infection form. A combat form like the one from inside came towards her; she immediately emptied a round into it and then shot down another. She looked at the sky to see it was getting late, at least around six. She breathed and then saw the nearby tanks and warthogs to the right. She knew what was up next, the citadel, and the end of this war… hard to think of an ending coming… after so much suffering. And sacrifices that she and her parents made.

She saw the elites enter a nearby separatist phantom.

"Quickly, I must see the point of impact; assess the damage done to the Ark." The arbiter looked at the strange Unit then shook his head.

"To the top of these hills, Oracle, no higher. We cannot risk your capture by the Flood." He said, the robot acknowledged and entered the phantom. Thel looked at the ODST squad, and then sighed.

"Next time I see you, we shall be victorious." He said and then entered the Phantom. The flood were gone at the moment, Mickey sighed.

"What the heck was that thing?" he asked. Immediately the COM spoke.

"Some AI unit from the first halo ring, hard to think it's helping us." Romeo said. Mickey sighed.

"So our new orders?" he asked. The squad walked towards the Vehicles.

"Through there is the objective… Truth." Buck said. Faire nodded.

"Can't wait to kick his ass, sir." She said. Buck chuckled.

"Can't we all?" he then immediately got onto a warthog's turret. The chief immediately got inside a tank.

"I can't…" Romeo replied snidely. Dutch laughed for a moment.

"Ah can it Romeo, next time you get dibs." He said. Romeo didn't answer. Buck looked out to everyone.

"Rookie, you drive, Mickey, I want you to stick with the Chief, Faire and Dutch, keep together… and Victor, I could use a wingman." He said. Victor headed towards the warthog with Rookie. Dutch looked to Faire.

"Alright kiddo, you and me." He said. She slowly nodded. Dutch walked over to a nearby warthog.

"You wanna drive?" he asked, she slowly nodded.

"Might as well." She said and quickly got into the warthog's driver's seat. Rookie Buck and Victor were in a Warthog to her right. Rookie glanced at her for a moment and then slowly nodded.

"Now take it out nice and easy." He said in a slightly joking manner… like he was a driving instructor. Faire swallowed and put the jeep in drive, the large metal door like a garage door started opening. She pushed hard on the Pedal. The warthog started going up the hill towards the tunnel. As did the others nearby and the chief's tank.

JOHN 117

1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES FROM ODST MISSION START

John saw private Crespo get into the Gunner seat. He wrapped his hand on the controls for the tank.

"Shipmaster's Carrier is out of commission, Chief. I need you to take down Truth. The Flood's just going to put pressure on him; accelerate his plans. Punch through the cliffs! Get inside that Citadel!" Keyes voice spoke inside his COM. Part of his mind lingered on High-Charity crashing into the ark. He stopped thinking about Cortana and immediately started the tank forward. Crespo spoke on the COM.

"So you excited chief?" he asked. John sighed slightly and drove the tank up the hill.

"Crespo, the only thing I want you to focus on is the objective… and surviving." He simply said. Crespo went silent. He could see the ODST in at the gunner seat. As they went through the tunnel he spoke up.

"Yeah… you're right sir; it's just hard to imagine this is basically the end of the war." He said. John didn't reply but thought over that last bit.

_End of the war… all I've ever known_

Thinking back to how this war started… it was hard to believe all this time, he had fought a war, and if they were to win, then that'd be it, the end. He doubted there would be much use for him, except for fighting insurrectionists.

He banished the thought from his mind and drove through the tunnel. He saw the other ODST vehicles remain behind, Dante and Faire were about half times faster than the tank at the moment, they were vigilant, he'd give them that.

_You will become the best we can make of you. _

Doctor Halsey's voice rung in his ear… he remembered his training… the augmentations and such… and his friends.

_Hood tells me Fred, and Linda are on a secret mission… hard to think they would miss out on this… does it have something to do with Kelly?_

The chief sighed, Halsey basically kidnapped Kelly before they were about to embark on operation first-strike. John finally exited the tunnel he looked to his HUD on the marines bio-signs. All green, they needed to do this, or the rendezvous with the Marine forces already in combat would be a failure, and failure was not an option. The tank drove up into some sort of polar region. He could see Covenant deployable towers and choppers. He was tired of men dying for this fight; it was time to finish it.

THE ROOKIE

1 HOUR AND 34 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

James drove forward on the pedal by the chief's tank. Trying to go up there would be suicide. Immediately the chief started firing towards a deployable tower in the distance. Buck started turning the Turret and firing towards a grunt.

"Yeah!" his CO yelled. Rookie made a right turn and then drove forward, Victor seemed to be in a trance. Obviously getting ready for headshots. Rookie drove on the right side of some rocks and made a quick left turn. He looked out to see a giant building, the Citidel… Truth was in there, and so was Johnson.

"Citadel in site, brutes are mobilizing everything they got!" A man, perhaps a Pilot spoke over the COM. Rookie saw a deployable tower with fuel Rod Cannons, he immediately power slid out of the way and towards some rocks to the right, the chief's tank fired and decimated the tower.

"Ghost!" Victor yelled. Immediately on the other side of the ricks two ghosts came out, Buck fired his turret, a Gatling gun towards it, the Grunts driving quickly died from the onslaught.

"Got em!" Buck yelled. Rookie nodded and pressed hard on the gas and took another right turn. On the other side was a tunnel with a shade turret on top of it. Rookie gunned for the tunnel and quickly threw a plasma grenade up at the shade. He heard a satisfying explosion on the other side.

_Making good time_

Rookie looked at his rearview mirror and saw a brute chopper from behind, Buck fired towards it but it boosted and gained on them.

"Drive faster Rookie, you know what that thing could do!" Buck yelled. Rookie breathed, that thing could murder them if it got close enough. He drove through the tunnel, it was somewhat dark. The only light came from the shots fired from the vehicles and the headlights. The Chopper got closer; Rookie could see flashes of the Brute's head on the rearview mirror. Victor looked backwards then sighed.

"Keep the jeep steady!" he yelled and aimed his sniper rifle. Rookie nodded and focused forward, he started seeing light on the other end. Finally it came and he saw that… there was nothing on the other end but a drop.

"Captain, I need to stop this thing!" he yelled. Buck shook his head.

"No, the chopper will tear us to pieces." He said firing the turret. Rookie breathed in quickly.

"Then we'll fall!" he yelled. Buck sighed.

"We're ODSTs… we can take it!" he yelled. Victor fired with the sniper rifle on the Brute and got a headshot, the Brute fell to the side and the chopper slowed down and crashed into a ghost that was lagging behind it, the combined explosion forced them to drive off the cliff.

"SHIT!" Victor yelled.

"Brace yourself!" Buck yelled. The Jeep hit ground after ten seconds of falling; Rookie fell back, feeling a pain.

THE ROOKIE

1 HOUR AND 46 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

_Agh… damn… why does this keep happening… setback after setback…_

James could feel his head throbbing, a sharp pain… he couldn't tell what was worse, the car accident… or what he forced his folks through.

After about 2 minutes Rookie slowly leaned back, he could smell smoke. The jeep seemed alright and absorbed most of the impact. Rookie couldn't find strength in his legs to walk; he slowly opened the driver door (mostly meant for civilians) and tumbled out. He was on snow and his helmet was cracked. He removed it and then looked out; they were in front of the Citidel on the ground. He paused to adjust to the light then looked at the Warthog, Victor slowly got up out of his seat, Rookie saw that his nose was bleeding from the impact. He wiped it and saw ghosts in the distance.

"Damn… rough landing…" Victor said panting, Rookie nodded towards him.

The last to get up was Buck, who was lucky to be alive like them, but not the luckiest, his hand covered a bloody spot on his armor, on his right side. Rookie looked at him.

"Sir?" Buck removed his helmet and shook.

"It's alright… I… damn." He said looking at his own blood. The turret impacted his side, it must have been painful to get off of it, and it looked deep. Rookie looked at him. Buck knelt to the ground.

"Agh!" he groaned. Victor immediately went through his pack and found some BIO-FOAM, he handed it to Buck.

"Here you go!" he said. Buck slowly applied it to his side, he yelled slightly from the stinging sensation it gave and fell back. Rookie tried to help him up, but he knew Eddy would never let him see him like this.

"I'm fine… alright?" He groaned and slowly stood up, shaking and immediately fell back.

"Buck!" Rookie yelled. He knelt down beside his downed officer. Buck looked at Rookie.

"You were right, Dante… Damn." He said. Rookie sighed.

"Sir, we're going to get you out of here." He said. Buck shook his head.

"No… you can still fight, you need to help breach that citadel." He said, Rookie stared at him. Buck leaned up.

"Just, get going." He said. Victor shook his head.

"Dante can go; I'm staying with you, sir. This war has enough dead heroes." He said. Buck was about to shake his head, then slowly given in.

"Good man, I'll be fine… just get moving… James." He said. Rookie was about to turn, Buck then looked at the helmet Rookie clutched.

"A cracked Visor? No, James take mine." He said handing the helmet towards him; Rookie stared at it and slowly took it. He put it on and immediately started the COM to Romeo.

"Romeo, captain's wounded, we need a Pelican!" he said, Romeo seemed distraught.

"Rookie? Er, I'll send one, but I doubt it'll get there until the fights over… in our favor." He said.

"Alright, just do it." He said. He then crouched towards Buck.

"Romeo's sending help, if I see the others, I'll tell them you're here." He said. Buck nodded.

"Alright…" he said then leaned back, then slowly putted Rookie's helmet on. Rookie hurried towards the Warthog and got it started; his rifle was slung around his back. The helmet seemed strange, it had boosted length for COM traffic, and it worked with his armor perfectly. His eyes tapped a few images on HUD and then switched to a new user for the helmet. Buck's voice spoke up over the COM.

"You have your orders, as far as I'm concerned you're captain for the moment, link up with the squad and stop the rings." Buck sounded better, albeit slightly.

_Captain? You get hurt and I basically rank up? This is… weird_

Rookie drove forward and could see the Citadel to the left; there were some Ghosts near it. One started charging towards him, he readjusted the direction he was driving to make it a narrow miss and immediately got out of the seat and entered the turret. The Ghost came by for another round and James quickly fired into it, the ghost started cracking and then tore itself to pieces. Rookie breathed in and quickly got back into the driver seat.

He looked up at the citadel and to the right he saw the chief's tank. Along with Faire's jeep… they were alright. He immediately got on his COM and messaged to them.

"Guys, captains wounded, Victor's staying with him." Rookie said, and then sighed.

"Said I'm in charge now." He then said. He would have expected Dutch to refuse, since his rank was higher, but strangely, Dutch was calm.

"Gunny just told me, seems he has faith, we'll get on the Hornets and meet up with-"

Dutch abruptly stopped; Rookie slowly looked up, and saw something falling… Scarabs.

_And I thought ghosts were an issue… scarabs, now that's a whole different ball game._

(Some people might complain that Rookie shouldn't be in charge, but I've been having Rookie oppose Buck's views and showing a backbone, showing that he can lead. And frankly, I don't see Dutch as the type to dish out orders, but more as an older-brother who won't complain if mom and dad are slightly nicer to little siblings on occasion. Also the tunnel was in the original halo 3; it just wasn't that long and didn't lead off the cliff.)


	19. Chapter 19

BUCK

1 HOUR and 50 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Eddy Buck slowly wheezed leaning up. The pain kept reminding him it was there. HE tried to think back to the last thing Veronica told him… something about interference.

Victor focused his sniper rifle taking aim. Buck looked at him.

"So, did you expect this to happen… you know, ending up watching some old guy?" he asked. Victor shrugged.

"To be honest I always liked you ODSTs." He said. Buck chuckled.

"Yeah… I work hard…" he said, then picking up the nearby BR. Rookie's VISOR was cracked and so, it was hard to see what was on his left side, he removed it for a moment to take aim.

"As for, ending up protecting you… no, not my standard day." Victor said. Buck nodded.

"Alright, how old are you, son?" he asked. Victor fired towards a Grunt then breathed.

"31, my birthday is this February." He said and took another shot. Two ghosts went down. He could see the Scarabs, but frankly going after them was a bad idea. Buck slowly stood up, feeling the pain in his side spike up. Victor looked at him.

"Sir?" Buck shook his head.

"I'm alright… I just… seeing something." He said. Victor looked at him to see Buck was looking up. They could see the Say-My-Name in turmoil it was visible and he could see fires, and seraphs, his breathing staggered.

_Veronica's up there… damn it_

"Sir, you alright?" he asked. Buck looked at him.

"It's nothing, come on, we should get moving." Buck said, ignoring the pain. He couldn't fight but they would be sitting ducks.

"I see some ghosts up there, we should get the sneak on them and take 'em." He said. Victor sighed.

"I thought you were supposed to stay there, like you told Dante?" Victor asked. Buck sighed.

"I'm feeling much better now." He said. He then put the helmet on while still holding his side. The snow staggered his run to more like a drunken jog. Victor slowly nodded.

"Alright." He said. The two headed towards a nearby hill to scout out the ghosts. Victor looked out through his scope and saw about 8 ghosts in all, each were operated by a Ungoy grunt, except the leader, it was a brute who drove that one. Victor quickly loaded a mag into his sniper rifle.

"What do you say; we pick off the leader, and then kill the stragglers?" Buck asked. Victor slightly smiled.

"I like the way you think sir." Victor said preparing to fire.

FAIRE

1 HOUR AND 50 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Anne Faire sat in the Hornet's pilot seat.

"Chief, you sure about this?" she asked. The half-ton Spartan was clipped to the side of the Hornet.

"We need to get moving Lance Corporal, just get me there." He said. Faire nodded and thrusted off the ground. After half a second she saw something.

"A shit." Two Scarabs fell from the sky from the Covenant Carrier from above. And they looked angry. She was turning back on the controls.

"No, hover above one of them, I'll take it out." He said. She breathed and nodded.

"Alright sir." She pushed forward on the controls and left the ledge, where Dutch and Mickey stayed with the tank to hold back the covenant being sent in. She flew towards the Scarab on the right and immediately lowered the thrusters to avoid fire from the other one. The giant mechanical monsters breathed Green plasma towards the Hornet. The chief clutched a pistol and an assault rifle on his back. He fired with the pistol towards a grunt on the Scarab, it was operating a turret and then got hit and fell back to the ground, and she looked at the ground and saw a couple jeeps. James Dante was in one of them. She pulled back on the throttle and hovered above one of the scarabs.

"Good luck… sir." She said. He nodded and unclipped from the hornet and plunged down towards the scarab.

_Crazy son of a bitch_

Faire started moving again to avoid fire from the second scarab; she fired missiles towards it and then flew in reverse to create more distance between her, and it. The chief was visible, she saw him fighting a chieftain. The other Hornets in the air were having trouble hanging on from the barrage coming from the Scarabs. She sighed and then went to her COM.

"Buck, Mickey, Dutch… Captain (she slowly hesitated in calling Rookie that) what's your situation?" she asked. Buck slowly answered back.

"Victor and I are going after a couple ghosts; we might be able to stagger one of the Scarabs." Faire slowly nodded.

"Ok."

"Me and Mickey are going through Covenant like butter, I think there's some Elites behind the Rocks." He said. Rookie took the longest.

"I'm scooping up any marines whose vehicles just died, can I trust you to give me a pick-up, Faire?" he asked. She swallowed.

_He always needs me to do something… but I can't say no to him._

"Alright, drive towards one of the cliffs and I'll get you." She said. Then noticing a jeep leave the herd towards a cliff on the right, the Scarab took no notice. She glided towards it and landed. She saw Rookie and a couple other Marines in a beaten old jeep. Rookie got out of it and the others followed. There were about four of them.

"Alright, I can take three at a time, I think anyways, any of you pilots?" she asked. One of them raised their hands.

"Good, there's some hornets up on the ridge, get in and I'll fly you up." She said. The men nodded and then loaded into the Vehicle, leaving the cockpit open. James looked at her.

"Thanks." He said, she shook her head.

"No problem how's Buck?" she asked. Rookie sighed.

"He's alright I think, we took a long fall and he was impaled by a turret." He said, she felt a strange feeling just hearing what happened. Like shit got real.

"And he put you in charge?" she asked. Rookie sighed.

"I'm sorry; apparently he thinks I'm cut out for this." HE said, she held his hand for a moment.

"Nothing to be sorry for, and yeah... I'd suppose." She said. James slowly nodded and retracted his fingers and slowly walked towards his warthog.

"I'll get more Marines and bring them here, instruct the pilot to help in pick up." He said, he then started the ignition. Faire nodded.

"Just remember your promise…"

She slowly got back into the hornet. She sighed, this was a bad idea, soon the group would take notice, and one of them would be transferred… Mickey already saw enough… but then again, they both had pretty much lost everything, family, property… well except that box Rookie keeps looking at… they were all they both had left. Faire paced back to the hornet.

_He'd make a great dad…_

MICKEY

2 HOURS AFTER MISSION START

Michael Crespo clutched the tank controls roughly. Dutch took up the gunner seat.

"This kinda reminds me of back at New-Mombasa." He said. Dutch sighed.

"What the part where you helped me out when there was a wraith on my back?" he asked. Mickey shook his head.

"No, the part where I drove the tank." Dutch chuckled.

"I guess." He said. Mickey drove around the ridge and fired on a ghost; it blew up and fell off the ridge.

"Romeo, what do you detect up here?" Dutch asked. Romeo answered back.

"A wraith and two ghosts… also there are some Elites hiding in the cliffs help them out, would yah?" he asked. Dutch tapped the green signal light. He needed to get better at using signals to notify team members, although that was much easier for Spartans, it was practically second nature. Mickey steered the tank to the other side and immediately fired on a wraith, Dutch fired the turret towards it, then in perfect syncopation, Mickey shot another slug through the Wraith, it fell apart and blew to hell. One of the two ghosts was pushed by the explosion of the ridge, but the other Ghost just drove away, he could hear the grunt in it screaming.

"Coward." Dutch said, suddenly he saw a bright light as one of the 2 scarabs blew. Mickey squinted to see that the chief was down there and in a recently commandeered ghost.

"Wow, Spartans rock!" Mickey said. Dutch nodded.

"My point exactly, Romeo." He said voicing on his COM. Romeo grumbled.

"Yeah… he just got lucky." The tank drove over the ridge and he saw some hills. Finally on his COM he heard a voice yell.

"Do not shoot!" He saw some elites pop out of it, one of them had a damaged Jaw. Mickey saw it was clear and exited the tank, Dutch followed. There were about six elites there.

"Good to see you guys could make it." He said, lending his hand.

"Ship master." He added. The elite, Rtas 'Vadum shook it.

"Shadow of Intent may be down, but I intend to see this day end as well." He said. Mickey nodded.

"Did you go by any Humans?" he asked. The elite sighed.

"Yes… they were busy fighting Covenant and the Flood. There's an old Forerunner Ruin city around here…south." He said. Mickey nodded. He then looked at the Alien again.

"The prophets are keeping the rest of Johnson's team below the control room, some sort of basement level… we saw footage from our spy carriers." He said. Mickey nodded.

"We'll have to get them out before the flood get here." He said. R'tas nodded.

"Agreed, however there is still a fight at hand… and your carrier." He said looking up; Say-My-Name seemed to keep getting closer. Dutch sighed.

"We haven't gotten contact from them, must be bad." He said.

"Perhaps the flood…" the elite said, he looked towards them and then to a nearby Wraith tank in pristine condition.

"Come brothers, we must finish this." He said. The elites cheered. Mickey nodded, he then looked at Dutch.

"Better get back in the tank." Dutch nodded.

"But I drive this time." Mickey sighed.

_This is why we can't have nice things_

THE ROOKIE

2 HOURS AND 5 MINUTES

James drove anther group of marines to the rendezvous point, he saw another Hornet lower to get them, and it wasn't Faire though. He could see the hornets above in combat with Banshees. The marines thanked him and got on the hornet. He nodded and then looked down towards the destroyed scarab. The master chief was there. Rookie immediately drove the Warthog down to the chief.

"Need a lift, sir?" he asked. The chief looked at him then got into the turret seat and fired towards a ghost.

"You want me to take you to a hornet?" he asked. The chief emotionlessly shook his head.

"No, I have a better idea… you see that cliff trooper?" he asked. Rookie looked to the left of the remaining scarab and saw a cliff, it would lead directly onto the scarab.

"Sir… you crazy?" he asked. The chief didn't respond.

"Get me over there, then get out of the jeep." He said.

"Eh… to be honest, I cannot compromise myself so you can have one shot at that scarab." He said. The Chief slowly nodded.

"Very well… get me down to its legs." He said, Rookie nodded and immediately hit the gas. The wheels shifted in the snow and the jeep got to the Scarab, its feet were forever in movement. The chief started firing towards one of the legs. Rookie drove around the same leg and saw sparks of energy break down and finally it lowered. Rookie drove to one side of the scarab. The chief looked to him.

"Wait here." He said simply. It wasn't too bad of a demand, they finished off the ghosts and the banshees were too busy. Rookie sat there for a moment and then looked at the Citidel. It was a spire with a very grandiose design. He then thought about Faire and the other troopers… what if the flood came? Those monsters were already terrible enough as is. He then heard a noise erupt from the Scarab, and after 20 seconds the chief jumped back into the Jeep.

"Gun it!" he yelled. Rookie hit the gas and drove forward. He felt the piece of junk shaking and then looked back for a moment. The Scarab bursted into flames and went supernova, after about 8 seconds of burning, Rookie could finally re-adjust to the light to see all that was left was a pile of scrap.

"Sir… permission to speak freely?" he asked. The chief nodded.

"That… was badass." He said. The chief patted him on the shoulder.

"Well done." He said. Rookie saw separatist phantoms and pelicans enter the area, the Phantom hovered aboard a platform leading into the citadel. From it came out two figures. Thel Vadam the Arbiter, and Guilty Spark. '

"Spark has found a way into the Citadel. He's waiting for you on the platform, Chief. Go!" Commander Keyes voice ordered. Rookie nodded.

"I'll just drop you off sir." He said. Rookie saw a couple ghosts and saw it to be Buck and Victor.

"Good you guys could make it." He voiced on the COM. Rookie parked near the platform they did the same. Buck slowly got out of the Ghost, the chief looked to him.

"I'm fine… you're needed there sir." He said. The Spartan slowly nodded and walked up to the platform. Buck patted Rookie on the back.

"Seems everything turned out alright." He said, in a slight wheez. Rookie nodded.

"Yeah… it's over…" he said.

"Almost son, there's just a matter of a prophet to murder." He said. Rookie saw a tank up there.

"We're alright up here." Dutch voiced. Rookie then looked out to see Faire's hornet, she landed near the warthog and ghosts. He removed his helmet and looked to see Faire, she joined the group.

"After this, I think we should be in for a nice vacation." She smiled slightly. Buck nodded.

"For a recruit, you did well." He said, she nodded.

"Thanks… I guess." She answered. She then looked at Rookie.

"Good work… sir." She said, he slowly nodded.

Rookie put the helmet back on and then voice over the COM.

"Romeo, we're clear down here." He said.

"Alright, I'll send that pelican." He said. Mickey then voiced on the COM.

"We met up with some elites, they told us some of Johnson's men are under the control center, when we're through with Truth, we should take a look." He said.

"Alright." Rookie said. He looked up and saw the Say-My-Name to be out of sight. Rookie sighed then approached the Master Chief on the platform.

"Sir?" he asked. The Spartan turned towards him.

"Can you ask Keyes what's going on with the Say-My-Name?" he asked. The chief seemed silent, and then his hand clicked to a COM unit on his helmet.

"This is Sierra 117, what is the situation aboard the UNSC Say-My-Name?" he asked. Finally Miranda Keyes' voice answered.

"We don't know, some of us think the flood got aboard, but all monitoring equipment has been disabled, and we can't get any contact from them." she said. The chief sighed.

"I'm sorry." He said. The rookie nodded.

"It wasn't for me… for the gun-ray sergeant." He said. The chief nodded. The robot thing 343 guilty spark was busy working on something on the platform. Rookie walked down the platform to the others.

"I asked about the frigate, they don't know either." He said. The color that was in Buck's face left, he slowly nodded.

"Alright." He then saw the Pelican come down. Romeo was on it… who seemed in a better mood, considering he broke his leg over two hours ago.

"Hey, miss me?" he asked. Rookie saw he was doing much better. Buck putted the helmet on and got on the Pelican.

ROMEO

2 HOURS AND 25 MINUTES AFTER ODST MISSION START

Buck got on the pelican and looked to him.

"Where are we heading?" he asked. Romeo sighed.

"Not to the dawn just yet, we're going to pick up Mickey and Dutch and sticking around for the fireworks." He said. Buck nodded, holding his side.

"You look like hell." He said. Buck chuckled.

"I've had a long day." He looked out to see some sort of blue holo bridge open. The Chief and Arbiter quickly crossed it, while the remaining three Marines were about to cross. Suddenly the pelican shook.

"What the hell?" Romeo asked. He looked out to see Covenant Re-enforcements. Brutes, jackals, and grunts were all pilling out onto the ridge; the other side was sealed up. Buck could see AA wraiths.

"Damn it." Romeo groaned. He looked down at the gate to see that the bridge was disabled just as the Chief and Elite got in the facility.

"Get us out of here!" Romeo yelled. The pilot shook his head.

"You crazy? They'll tear us to bits." He said. Buck sighed.

"Get us to the ridge… the covenant should mostly be up there. I'll operate the turret." Romeo looked at him.

"Sir, like you said, you've been through a lot, shouldn't you just call it a day and sit this one out?" he asked. Buck slowly breathed.

"I did not ask for your condolences soldier, that is an order!" he answered back. Romeo looked at him and slowly nodded. The pilot turned the pelican to face the ridge.

"Alright… sir." He said, and grabbed a sniper rifle on the wall of the Pelican. Romeo could see other marines mobilizing. The pelicans already there were quickly firing on the AA wraiths. But the covenant was too much and went straight through the Pelicans. Meaning they were slowly running out of transport.

FAIRE

2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES

Anne Faire saw the Banshees and forces on the ridge.

"Damn." She said. Then immediately Spark disabled the bridge.

"Hey, we were gonna use that!" she yelled. The robot shook his head.

"The reclaimer inside will handle himself well… and we cannot let the flood overtake this facility." It said. James Dante stared at it.

"The flood?" he asked. Faire then saw something, a scarab cross in, except… It didn't look normal, the design was different, it was the color of pale Vomit… and it had Flood combat forms all over it. Rookie immediately went to his COM unit.

"Mam, the Flood has intercepted a Covenant Scarab, we need back-up, or we'll be wiped out." He yelled.

"I'm sorry Lance Corporal… I can't do that." Keyes' voice said, and then suddenly Faire saw a pelican crash into the tower.

_The commander… she wouldn't…_

Victor groaned and loaded his Sniper Rifle. James, who seemed a bit shocked walked down the platform and sat down, he removed his helmet to reveal a somewhat stressed face. Seeing him like this affected her… at least a little bit.

_He wouldn't give up like that._

"This is it." He slowly said. Faire nodded. She stepped down the platform to James who was clutching his rifle; she patted him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Your orders… James?" she asked. He looked at them both then sighed.

"I doubt we have a chance of clearing through… and you think I can get us through this? This is suicide." He said. Faire shook her head.

"We're hell jumpers… that's kinda our thing." She said. He looked into her eyes for a moment and slowly nodded.

"Personally… I think we're dead… but, I think I also have an idea." He said getting up. James quickly slipped on his helmet, and loaded a round into his Sub-machine gun. He quickly surveyed the area and grabbed a couple rounds from a nearby ammo bin. Faire smiled slightly and putted her helmet back on. She looked at the ridge to see the allies weren't doing to well. Rookie put his hand to his COM.

"It's a bit risky though… Romeo, what's your status?" he asked. For a moment no answer, then on the COM Romeo answered.

"We're on the ridge fighting incoming Covenant, and it's just you three down there… and the scarab?" he asked.

"Yeah… I think I have a plan." He said. Romeo slowly answered back.

"What?" he asked.

"You see this nearby Scarab full of flood? We're gonna lead it right onto the ridge into the Covenant."

(Nearing the end of the story, one chapter left)


	20. Chapter 20

DUTCH

2 HOURS AND 35 MINUTES

Dutch couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What Rookie?" he asked. James Dante breathed on the other side.

"We'll use our hornet to catch the scarab's attention, then we'll lead it up the ridge, it will find the Covenant reinforcements and that'll give the chief enough time to finish Truth." He said. Dutch looked out over the ridge for a moment, there was a giant quad-footed machine, it was vomit colored and he could smell it from over here. Mickey breathed.

"But what about us?" he asked. Rookie answered back.

"You guys and the elites need to board Romeo's Pelican right when the Flood find the Covenant, but until then, hold up the perimeter, or the coveys will over-run everything and easily take out the Flood Scarab." He said. Dutch breathed in and then nodded.

"You heard the man, let's keep going Mickey." He said. Mickey's grip on the turret hardened.

"You're just going with this? Just because Buck says so?" he asked. Dutch sighed.

"Mickey, it doesn't matter if I trust Dante or not, I trust Buck, and his judgment… and besides, isn't he supposed to be your best friend?" He said. Mickey sighed.

"I know…" Mickey sighed. Dutch saw the remaining UNSC pelicans either going down, or picking up the wounded to avoid the flood.

Romeo then answered back.

"Alright, we'll give you covering fire if the flood gets too close for comfort… and we have a little surprise in this pelican." He said.

"What?"

"An old warhead that was on the Dawn, this is the type of stuff they used to take out small armies in one group… 'least back then… it was my idea just in case." He said. Rookie's breath staggered.

"So we get them all together, and blow them to hell?" he asked.

"Exactly, however this old warhead requires something to blow, and hard in order to get it off by the time we leave."

"Like the Scarab going off." Rookie said.

"Maybe." Romeo's voice said. Dutch couldn't believe this.

"We're going to nuke them?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we get there." Rookie said. Dutch looked in the distance to see the hornet rising in the air. Victor was on one of the ghosts down there. Dutch drove forward on the controls. The elite in the nearby Covenant tank messaged Dutch on the COM.

"We're using the flood?" he asked. Dutch sighed.

"I guess we are, shouldn't be a problem?" He asked. Rtas 'Vadum sighed.

"I should hope not, the flood, are a plague… your 'leader' better know what he's doing." The elite said. Dutch aimed the cannon towards a brute chopper and blew it back. From the corner of his eye, he could see the hornet flailing around the Flood Scarab like a fly; it shot lasers as well as other flood. Some flood got off to collect bodies. Dutch tried not to think of these… Zombie things. They reminded him of old movies he saw. Him and Gretchen use to watch…

Mickey fired the turret on a banshee in the air.

"You got banshees, be careful!" Mickey voiced on the COM to Faire.

FAIRE

2 HOURS AND 40 MINUTES

"Got it Mickey." She said and immediately fired a Rocket towards the Scarab, aiming for a non-lethal hit; the Scarab fired more plasma their way. She was surprised this plan was working. Rookie was on the side of the Hornet, he clutched a rocket launcher he found off a nearby drop pod. Victor said he would make it to one of the Ghosts and he would run down any flood that made it off the scarab. Times like this Anne felt like a shepherd… leading things to places, she remembered bible stories about this stuff… Her parents were hard-core Catholics. The kind that only killed because it was the only way to save their kind… of course she did grow up in the south. Her uncovered hand held the trigger button.

"Romeo, would rockets work on the warhead?" she asked. Romeo sighed.

"No, the old way is to detonate the scarab… but that was UNSC tech in the day." He said. She nodded. The scarab was getting closer. Rookie was right by her, she sighed.

"James… how are we gonna set of that Scarab?" she asked. He sighed.

"When it's there, I'll get on it and in the confusion… I'll break the power core." He said. Faire sighed.

"A bit dangerous… don't you think?"

"…If it's necessary, then yeah… but we need to end this war." He answered back. She breathed… James was willing to possibly die to do this…

"I… ok." She slowly said.

"But I will come back to pick you up," she said, not in a requesting voice, but in a more demanding I'm telling you how it is kind of voice. James sighed.

"No… I want you to get out of here the moment I land on the scarab."

"James…" Rookie sighed at the casual use of his name and immediately voiced on the COM. Faire breathed steadily and fired rockets towards another banshee.

"Romeo, drop the Bomb at the entrance. "He ordered.

"Got it." Romeo's Pelican flew over by the entrance to the structure, and drop a small pod down to it. The pelican quickly evaded covenant fire and flew away. Faire watched it hit the ground, and then she lowered the Hornet to avoid an incoming Banshee. She fired her rockets towards it, and then towards the flood on the scarab to keep it coming. She looked down to see Victor was doing a decent job keeping other flood occupied, running down two combat forms.

THE ROOKIE

2 HOURS AND 46 MINUTES

James stood at the side of the Hornet in the air; this was probably the most risky move of his career… probably his life. He put his hand to his COM.

"Buck… do you copy?" he asked. The older veteran answered.

"I'm here, what is it?" he asked. Rookie sighed then looked at the scarab.

"Do you… think this is a good idea?" he asked. Buck sighed on the other end.

"James, the point is we get the chief more time… that's a small scale NUKE and the only one who can be killed if everything goes according to plan, is you… you need to ask yourself what you're willing to risk." He said. Rookie breathed in slightly then nodded. He risked a lot of things… like Anne. He shook the thought away and launched a rocket towards a nearby wraith. It was almost there.

"Victor, how's the flood down there?" he asked.

"Oh, fine… not that many, but I think some are coming out of the citadel." He said, Rookie sighed.

_Atleast we're stopping the Covenant_

"Affirmative, when we're ready to blow, get yourself to good distance away from the scarab… that's an order." Rookie said. Victor sighed then answered back.

"Alright, If I have too."

BUCK

2 HOURS AND 52 MINUTES

Eddy Buck sat at the turret firing on grunts, he's been feeling better. Romeo fired a round towards a ghost, splattering the grunts blood over the ground. They were currently losing this battle, losing half of the elites. Mickey and Dutch luckily were quick and could take it. Buck immediately fired towards one of the banshees and smiled to see it blow apart and impact a nearby group of grunts.

Rookie's voice came on the COM.

"Alright, the flood is close enough, evac, time for you boys to get going… and pick up Victor on your way." Rookie ordered. Buck sighed. Romeo looked to the Pilot who obeyed. The pelican lost altitude and the elites fell back, Buck could already see Elites getting to cover. R'tas fired one more sludge of plasma and then exited his tank. The flood was already starting to jump from the Scarab. Dutch exited the tank, Mickey followed behind him. The Pelican lowered closer to the ground. Buck saw more flood getting closer, he fired with the turret, feeling it impact his ribs, which unusually hurt now. The pilot lowered close enough to the ground that he could see dust move.

"Get on!" he yelled. The elites quickly got on, the last to be R'tas. His broad form along with the other shangheli made this place very crowded.

A couple marines that stayed on the Ridge obeyed, the last to get on was Dutch and Mickey.

"Hey gunny, you ain't looking to good." Mickey said. Buck nodded.

"Hah hah funny." He said. Dutch patted him on the plates. The pilot started flying the pelican upward, but then a flood combat form with a shotgun jumped towards the pelican, the flood were already overrunning the Covenant. One made it onto the pelican in a drunken rage and jumped onto Buck.

"Fuck!" he yelled immediately R'tas plunged an energy sword through it. The remains fell off and onto the snow below. He gave Buck his hand, Edd slowly took it.

"Wow… thanks…" Buck would never forget the moment an elite saved him. The Elite helped him up.

"It's alright human."

"Now the Sniper!" Romeo yelled. The pelican lowered to the ghost that was still moving, Victor looked at them and nodded. Mickey lent his hand and Victor immediately jumped from the ghost towards the Pelican, Mickey caught his hand and pulled him up. The marines and Elites sat down while Mickey helped Victor up.

"Damn… thanks." Victor said. Michael nodded.

"It's alright… now that we're all still alive." He said. Buck sighed then looked at the hornet that was near the flood infested Scarab.

"We can't go back for them, not enough room… and we can't risk the flood again." He said. He started ignoring the pain in his chest. Dutch breathed slowly.

"I know they'll find a way off." He said. Buck nodded.

_Damn… my squad's still alive… Rookie and Faire have to make it… Veronica better be fine too_

"I hope… " The Pelican flew out of the area towards the carrier Forward unto Dawn. From the distance they could see a small scale explosion emit from the ridge they fought on, it happened exactly at the 3 hour mark.

THE ROOKIE

2 HOURS AND 52 MINUTES… ENDGAME

James breathed slightly, the Hornet got close enough to the Scarab, he could start seeing the flood swarm around and leave the Scarab. Anne Faire looked at him, and then sighed.

"Give em ell…" He nodded and slowly jumped onto the scarab. He fired a rocket at a nearby flood combat form and it fell apart. He hit the ground and breathed slightly.

_This is it_

James pulled out his SMG and fired towards more flood. They fell apart and James quickly reloaded, it was his last clip. He fired into another and started running towards the right side of it and saw a plasma turret, he immediately pulled it out of its spot and fired towards another flood creature. The scarab's original shiny metallic purple had died away and was replaced by strange flood tones, the flood couldn't of done this in a matter of hours, it had to of came from High charity. He got to the back of the thing and faced a energy shield like the ones jackals used. He raised the plasma turret and fired through the shields, behind it was the huragok power core was twisted with flood residue, it was vomit color instead of orange, he aimed the plasma turret and was about to fire when.

"You shall not!" suddenly a strange flood creature pushed him back to the side of the Scarab; he rolled off the edge and hung there. The walked towards him in a somewhat drunken stupor.

"Do you think you will win… even if we all die… your kind will die… Reclaimer." It simply said, It's English was broken and twisted. It stomped down on one of his hands, James yelled and let go, he immediately fell on one of the revolving legs.

"Even your demon… your Spartan… cannot save you now." It said. James breathed in.

_He's right… this whole day; our lives have been saved by the chief… I need to stop believing in figure heads… and believe in myself_

James fired his pistol towards the flood creature and it fell back.

"Fool… you cannot destroy me… you cannot win!" It yelled. Rookie noticed he had a clear shot to the core, and that the ground was littered with plasma grenades... He prepared a frag grenade.

"I don't have to… I just need make sure you lose." Rookie said and threw it. The Flood creature looked at it and suddenly the grenade detonated, damaging it, then the other ones went off burning it and the power core alive… well dead technically. The Scarab started beeping, it was time for the mission to end, and it was over. Rookie looked down from the leg and then saw Faire's Hornet. He breathed for a moment. Anne disobeyed an order. She opened the cockpit.

"Jump!" she yelled. He breathed and jumped from the leg to the hornet. He slipped and caught the railing; she immediately leaned out of the cockpit and caught his hand. They looked at each other for the moment as she tried to fly away from the scarab. It would go off and set off the nuke… killing them all.

"Let go!" he yelled. She shook her head.

"No!" she yelled. He sighed.

"That's an order.

"I don't give a fuck!" she yelled. Rookie looked at her.

"Anne…" she shook her head. They had literally met each other a week ago, and now she was basically saying she wanted to die with him… and strangely enough, so did he.

She wouldn't let go. And considering he was roughly 200 pounds with his pack and armor, which was impressive. She lowered the hornet to ground slightly then suddenly the Scarab went off, as well as the Nuke with it. A great yellow light emitted from the small scale warhead and immediately shook the Hornet. Faire pulled James in but it couldn't stop what happened next, a painful landing.

JAMES DANTE THE "ROOKIE"

2O MINUTES AFTER IMPACT

"James… James… we miss you." His mother said, her voice was dark, distorted… but recognizable.

"Come back to us… son." His father said. James was back there, in his home the moment he chose what he would be in life, a Marine… and the last moment he saw his mother and father. They looked at him.

"Where's Anne? Where's everyone else?" he asked. He wore different clothing then usual, what he use to wear. A gray T-shirt, beige pants. His body felt weaker. He heard the same strange flood voice from before talk to him.

"Turn back time… and what do you receive… a second chance… perhaps? Or nothing…" James looked around the room to find the source, his parents did not seem to notice. He looked at the mirror… He saw a dark room on the other side, a vomit colored enitity known as gravemind looked at him. He shook his head looking at it.

"No… I had to do what I did… nothing can force me to change my choice… painful as it is… we'd all be dead." James answered back. He had to leave and join the UNSC, or else nothing he would have done had mattered… The creature laughed, it's tentacles in constant motion, it's sick voice kept laughing.

"Perhaps…" It said. It shook its hands around and immediately James fell to the ground a pain.

"I am the voice of reason… of truth, perhaps you change over the seasons… but you are no sleuth."

It said twisting to make a rhyme. James felt he was in a familiar place… in a simpler time. It took him back. He felt his mother staring down at him. His father was gone now.

"Choose…" The grave-mind's voice was like a ticking clock. He looked at his mother she looked at her expectantly.

"Come back to us… James…" she said. Her frail form looked at him as weak and hungry. He shook his head.

"I can't do that… mom." He slowly said, he felt a tear slip.

"Can't, or won't?"

"I didn't want to…" he said, his mother stared at him.

"You broke our hearts… you let us die… you are no son of mine." She said. James swallowed.

"Mom…"

"Choose!" the grave-mind repeated. His mother stared at him expectantly; he saw a silver ring on her finger. He slowly put his hand in his pocket and felt a familiar lumpiness in it; he pulled out the wooden box. Opening it up to reveal that the ring was missing. He breathed and then shook his head.

"CHOOSE!" the voice yelled once more. He shook his head and finally ran away from the house into the street, it started to darken, and he tripped. The place he was in changed to a dark place, he looked up slowly and saw a familiar creature look at him.

"You are a fool… but it was only in your error… you survive…"

The grave-mind disappeared, and everything went dark.

James immediately got up from his resting place, the crash really got to him, and he felt residual heat and radiation from the Nuke. He felt his head, and then looked to his side to see Anne Faire in the ruined cockpit of the Hornet. He looked at her.

"Anne? Anne?" he asked, he put his hand to her throat and could feel breathing… she was alive… but her hand, the right hand without the gauntlet was burned badly. She wasn't awake. He stripped her pack off and slowly carried her out of the downed Hornet and slowly settled her down beside it, he removed her helmet to see that there was no damage beside the arm. Her hair was a mess; all the stress must of undid her pony tail. His hand grazed he cheek for a moment and removed his own helmet to kiss her forehead. He putted his own back on and looked around the area. He saw that the scarab was just pieces of scrap metal now… He thought for a moment.

_What was that thing?_

James sighed and then quickly searched his pocket for the wooden box and found that the ring was still in there, he sighed in relief.

_Guess it really was just my head._

He slowly put his put his hand to his COM.

"Forward to Dawn, or Say-My-Name, this is Lance Corporal James Dante, do you copy? I repeat do you copy?" he asked. But he got no message. He looked around and saw that most of the snow was gone, must have been from the blast… suddenly he heard something… and then in the distance he saw flood. James slowly held looked to the wreckage of the hornet and saw Faire's shotgun. He picked it up and loaded it. Suddenly the flood rushed towards him, he fired on it, then another one, and he kicked it away and emptied a round into it. He kept firing until he was out of ammo… this was the end. He stepped back to Faire's side; the unconscious girl laid there… might as well had been for a funeral. HE slowly knelt down.

_This is it… it's over_

The flood was about to jump on him when suddenly a barrage of turret fire brought it down, and then it attacked the others. Rookie looked up to see a pelican. And manning it was… Avery Johnson. The man had a cigar clenched between his teeth as he fired, the flood either dispersed or died, then the pelican landed by him.

"Dante, I'll be damned… I wouldn't of recognized you with the new helmet." He said. He then looked out.

"Were you the one who set off the nuke?" he asked. James breathed and then answered.

"Yes… my team and I did it." He said, and then slowly picked up Faire, and carried her onboard the pelican and strapped her in. Johnson sighed.

"How's Victor?" he asked. James looked his away.

"He's alright, I think he got away with the others." He said. Johnson nodded good work boy… now if only we could do something about those other soldiers, ones in my squad the covenant took." He said. James remembered hearing about this. James looked at him.

"I heard they were being kept under the control room." He said. There was fighting overhead, between Covenant and flood. Johnson looked at him.

"Then we have no time to get them, I went to get the stragglers like you and her(he looked at the unconscious girl for a moment) if I had more time then maybe, but the flood is well in there." He said. Rookie looked at him. Then thought to himself.

_Helpless men and women in danger because the UNSC couldn't help them… I can't let them die… I've already done enough of that... No more._

"I'll get them sir, and bring them back to you." He said. Johnson looked at him; he slowly slapped James on the plates.

"Good man." He said.

"If you were able to survive this hell hole, then I think you can get my men out alive… although I would have to send someone else to pick them up." He said. James nodded.

"I'll get it done." He said. Johnson slowly handed him an assault rifle.

"You'll need it… and Dante?" he asked. James looked at him, taking the rifle.

"We did it… war's over" He said. James nodded.

_The war's over… we did it_

James breathed in for a moment then looked at Anne.

"I'll make sure nothing happens to her, Dante, this was my last run anyways." He said. James nodded, part of him wanted to leave with Johnson, stay with her… but this wasn't about him.

"She's all I have left." He slowly pulled out the wooden box that was an heirloom that was from his parents especially the silver ring inside it… his last memory of them. He handed the box to Johnson.

"Give this to her when she's awake." He said. Johnson opened it slightly.

"Personally I'd say you two are a bit young, but… I'll make sure to." He said chuckling. He put the box in his pocket. Dante nodded and slowly started walking away towards the citadel; the pelican rose in the air, James watched it rise in the air and then noticed a giant ring in the air, that was slowly rising.

_I've missed a lot…_

FAIRE

IMMEDIATELY

End of special delivery from ODST plays.

Anne Faire sat in her seat and slowly nuzzled awake; she looked out to see James wasn't with her; she unbuckled and looked out to see James Dante walking across a holo-bridge, and then realized she was in a pelican.

_He's sending me back?_

Suddenly she felt a burning pain in her right hand, it was the arm actually. She immediately unclipped out and saw James watching the pelican go, she stared at the man piloting, Sargent Johnson.

"You son of a bitch! Get him back here!" She yelled not caring who it was, or understanding the situation. The man looked at her, she immediately punched her left fist towards him, and he caught it, and then looked at her. She kept yelling obscenities until suddenly she heard a voice.

"Anne, it's alright." James voice said. She realized it was coming from Johnson's COM link on his ear. He handed it to her.

"Take it." The man said, and she stopped attacking. She stepped towards the edge of the pelican, and saw James talking on his COM, his figure kept getting smaller.

"Anne… it's okay, I chose this." He said.

"You son of a bitch…" she slowly said, she felt tears stream out.

"I need to do this… save more lives…"

"But what about yourself? You're breaking your promise!" she yelled trying to reason with him, feeling a slight moistness in her eyes. He sighed on the other end.

"If I have too… Then I'm sorry Anne…" he said, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. James was going to die in there, she knew it, and that was why she couldn't help but cry.

"Anne… I need to do this… I can't let them die." He slowly answered back. Anne gripped the Com link for a moment. She breathed slowly.

_He's right… but what if they're already dead?_

Anne felt more tears slip out then answered into the COM.

"I know you do…" she said. Then unexpectedly she said something because if she held it in any longer she felt it would bother her for the rest of her life if she didn't.

"I love you…" she said. She saw him get smaller. There was a brief pause, she saw him look down and sighed for a moment.

"I know… That's why doing this is so hard for me." James said and immediately ended the message. She saw the hatch close. She gripped the COM-Link tighter… and tried to message James, no answer. She immediately sat down in one of the vacant seats, and held her face in her hand, the right one hurt too much, she felt tears stream down. This was it… Her life was practically over, they were gonna leave the Ark soon, and what would she have left? A rundown apartment? She breathed in slowly trying to think. She slowly got back up and walked towards the cockpit by Johnson, and handed him back his COM unit, in a sort of defeated gesture.

"Nothing to be sorry for… Your human, and can't help being human." He simply said, implying he heard the conversation while flying. She looked out his side window and saw something… it was crashing down.

"Oh shit… the Say-My-Name!" He yelled.

ROOKIE

James looked out up in the air watching the pelican fly away, he would see her again, he promised himself that. He slowly walked into the facility It was mostly intact except for bullet holes in the walls, and broken drones. The place had a gray color splashed everywhere. He then looked out one of the windows… He saw a human ship going down. He recognized it to be the Say-My-Name, It was plunging down, crashing down towards the Ark in a sort of Free-fall.

"Oh my god."

TO BE CONTINUED

(Yup, to be continued in part 2, in which I intend to finish off the story, It will take place on the Ark, and since we don't know how much time took place between Cortana and the final level, I'm going to take some artistic freedom and say about a day. As I write part 2, I'm going to update the first ten chapters of this fanfic to improve the quality, and very soon I'll release an epilogue that leads into part 2. Thank you for reading.)


	21. Epilogue to part 1

EPILOGUE TO PART 1

VICTOR

3 HOURS SINCE MISSION END

FORWARD UNTIL DAWN

Victor sat near one of the desks of the debriefing room. He as well as the other members of Buck's ODST team (he being a temporary replacement) to this room. He looked down one of the panels to see the great fight down over the ark… a three way between the UNSC , the Covenant, and the Flood. The hierarchy might have been gone, but the remaining forces were demanding vengeance.

He heard the master Chief's plan to procure Cortana for the index over the new halo ring, but they made sure with the chief that the ring would not be activated or attempted to be activated until all forces were either dead, or off planet. Which meant sending recalls to marine forces such as the ones within the forerunner city, or ones that lost contact with command. A full effort would take at the least a day. He sighed and then watched as the door opened, Mickey came in.

"How's the captain?" Victor asked. Mickey leaned back.

"He's made a full recovery, he shouldn't take long… He's a bit down though." He said. Dutch followed into the room and sat down.

"I went to see Faire's surgery, she's been shaken good… don't know what though…. Although I guess she's better than a couple hours ago." He said. Victor sighed.

"Probably mooning over Dante." He rolled his eyes. Mickey stared at him. Victor shrugged.

"Sorry." Romeo walked in along with Buck behind him. The man seemed to have a swagger in his step.

"Wow gunny, you look good as new." Dutch said. Buck nodded.

"So heard any survivors from Say-My-Name?" he asked. Dutch sighed.

"Not yet, anyways sir… hard to believe it crashed right in front of the Citadel… Strange when you think of it." He said. Buck nodded.

"I know… there has to be survivors though… I know it." Buck then said. He then looked at Victor.

"I asked Sargent Johnson if I could borrow you a little longer, he agreed for a transfer." He said. Victor slightly smiled.

"But you'll have to do more than sniping, seeing as Romeo's back." He said. Victor nodded.

"I won't let you down sir." He said.

"As for our plan… The UNSC has called for a major recall of all vehicles, weapons and personnel… We're not leaving Dante there to die." Buck said. Romeo smirked.

"I wouldn't dream of you deciding to leave your little protégé behind." He said. Buck rolled his eyes.

"Good to know you're in Great shape, Romeo." He said. Kojo sighed.

"Can't help it, sometimes you put too much faith in him." He said.

"And look where that got us, none of us are dead, and unless you decide to drop down stiff, I'd say keep your mouth shut." Buck immediately retorted. Romeo nodded. The door opened one more time to reveal Anne Faire, she seemed in better condition than two and a half hours prior. On her right side was a mechanical arm, for use in UNSC military until a new arm could be cloned at earth. She sat down in a seat beside Mickey. He looked at her, she breathed deeply.

Victor looked at Faire and saw that on her new mechanical right arm she wore a silver ring. Her hair was wrapped in a rough ponytail, obviously still getting use to the new digs, and did Victor detect some old tear stains down her eyes? Buck looked at them.

"Gentlemen, we have a new mission, we are to return to the Ark and repossess all personnel, and since we only have a couple leads, some of us are heading to the city structure, others are heading to the crash site… The war is over, but we still have a job to do."

ROOKIE

1 HOUR SINCE MISSION END

James held his gun closely as he got closer to the vent and looked down, it was a short jump. He lowered into the next room and quickly looked around the area, he was in another old vent… but it seemed the flood recently used this one. HE monitored his HUD, he was fine on Ammunition. And he didn't need a health pack.

He got to another opening and looked down. Below was a solid grey ground. He swallowed slightly and moved forward to carefully jump down; he hit the floor trying not to make a sound and approached what looked to be a control panel. He looked to the sides of the rooms, but the doors were locked, he tapped on the terminal for a moment and then looked at it, and saw a light blink blue. The machine came alive and the screen shone brightly, strange figures came into view, like it was booting up, but in a way, it seemed like this thing was always watching.

Feeling a scratching sensation in his mouth, James spoke.

"Hello?"

_The hell is this thing?_

The machine looked at him and started speaking, at first it sounded like gibberish, then it sounded like covenant. He shook his head.

"I don't understand." He simply said. The machine seemed annoyed with him then tested new sounds until it at least broke the language barrier and spoke Latin. James sighed.

_I need to broaden my views_

The Machine realized it had little effect; finally it started again, speaking in one more language.

"Hello Reclaimer… I have watched you." It said in plain English. Rookie looked up at it.

"Why?" The machine spoke in a strange accent he couldn't tell, maybe an old British dialect.

"Because the data told me." It said. He glanced at it, the screen had a light blue hue about it, with a large blue circle in the middle, it sorta reminded him of 343 guilty spark… except this thing was an entire monitor.

"Oh… I am sorry, I haven't even introduced myself." It said. Rookie stepped back a little.

"You may call me… Alcatraz."


End file.
